


Run Away With Me

by sitswithcats



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, Keith and Shiro are half siblings, M/M, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-05 04:43:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14036418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sitswithcats/pseuds/sitswithcats
Summary: “Well, we could go.” Hunk suggests.Both Lance and Keith look up at Hunk, “What?” they ask at the same time, this is completely unlike him, spontaneous is not his thing at all.“We could go. I can ask my parents for the lake house keys. They’ve been kind of on my ass lately for not doing anything, said I need to stop being so scared and nervous all the time and embrace the world around me now that I’m in college. What’s better than a random road trip up north?”A Klance Road Trip Au





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For reference:  
> Keith and Lance go to University of Michigan Ann Arbor  
> Hunk goes to Baker College in Muskegon, Michigan for their Culinary arts program  
> Allura goes to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York  
> Pidge goes to Interlochen Center for the Arts in Traverse City, Michigan  
> Lance is in his sophomore year of college while Keith, Hunk, and Allura are in their freshmen year and Pidge is in her junior year of high school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loosely based off of real life experiences, not my own but my best friend // this isnt exactly everything i changed a bit like what schools they go to and a few other things to protect my friends identity and such  
> Keith’s parents are very different in here than they are in canon I did that on purpose for the story  
> Shiro is Keith’s older half brother, they share the same mother, different fathers. Shiro still has his father’s last name while Keith took his own father’s, who is Shiro’s step father.  
> Keith calls him Takashi because they’re brothers, everyone else refers to him as Shiro
> 
> And If anyone is wondering why everything is based in Michigan, it’s because i live there lol

Keith steps out of his father’s car and into the garage of his parent’s house. He takes a deep breath and walks inside. His father brushes past him and goes right for the couch, leaving Keith alone.

It’s Thursday, which means his mother won’t be home for another hour. Keith goes right upstairs to his bedroom, he hears his younger sister in her own bedroom, watching some youtube video. Keith lays down on his bed and closes his eyes for just a few peaceful moments.

That is, until his dog, Banjo, jumps on his bed, barking away. He opens his eyes and grins wide. The only good thing about coming back to his terrible home.

“Hi, baby!” Keith begins to pet him, “I missed you so much.” He leans in, kissing the dog’s head gently.

Banjo barks excitedly, he crawls into his lap and tries to lick his face. Keith moves his face out of the way and calms him down, scratching behind his ears until he settles, laying in his lap peacefully. 

Keith lays back, relaxing a bit. He’s at peace for a moment, all is quiet around him and his mind is still.

That is, until his mother comes home. It all comes crashing down then she’s barely home for a minute before there’s loud arguing coming from his mother and younger sister, it goes on for a few minutes.

Keith looks down at Banjo and frowns, “I already miss being at school.” He whispers to him.

“Keith!” His mother shouts from the bottom of the staircase.

Keith rubs his face, mentally preparing himself for his mother. He gently moves Banjo off of his lap and opens his door. “Coming!” He calls before making his way down the steps.

“You didn’t come downstairs when I came home.” Is the first thing his mother says to him.

Keith frowns, “I didn’t hear you come in, I’m sorry.” He apologizes.

His mother turns her nose up and goes to the kitchen. Keith holds in his annoyance and follows where his sister and father are already sitting down at the kitchen table. Keith grabs the plates and napkins and sets the table for the four of them, knowing even though his sister is already in the room, she won’t do it.

His mother brings the food to the table and all four of them fill their plates with the food of their choice. It’s quiet for the first few minutes, everyone preoccupied with their own food. Eventually his father starts a conversation with his younger sister, talking about her school day.

Keith stays quiet throughout the conversations, not really wanting to talk to his family at all. He hopes that he can slip away when dinner is over without any problem, but the way his family is, he knows it’s unlikely.

“So, Keith,” His mother’s voice breaks Keith out of his train of thought, “how is school going?”

Keith smiles, putting on a happy face for his mother, “good, it’s a little harder than high school but it’s much better.”

“You didn’t do very good in high school so I hope your grades are better.” His father says.

“They are. I made the dean’s list last semester.” Keith attempts to keep the coldness out of his voice.

“They better be.”

Keith looks down at his food, glaring at it. His little sister snickers a bit, looking up at her brother.

“Keith doesn’t have any friends at college, so it’s just like high school.” 

Keith frowns, he looks over at his sister, “I have friends.”

“No you don’t, you sit in your room alone all day, I heard you complaining to mom the other day.”

Keith‘s frown deepens as he thinks about the previous conversation he had with his mother at a particularly low moment the other day. She had called him as she usually does on Wednesday nights and he was complaining a bit about how his roommates constantly bring their friends over, when she suggested he bring his own friends over to bother them, he mentioned that none were available at the time, he guesses that she took that as he doesn’t have any friends at all at school.

“He has friends.” His dad says. Keith smiles slightly, surprised that his father is actually defending him for once, that is until his father continues his sentence. “You all remember Allura, although I don’t think she remembers Keith, she went off to her own college and hasn’t been home since.”

Keith frowns, “Allura goes out of state, her spring break doesn’t line up with ours, her college is in New York. I still talk to her, we facetime every day.”

“That’s still sad, your only friend lives out of state and won’t come home for you.” His sister laughs.

Keith glares at her and stands up, sick of being tormented by his family. He pushes away from the table and takes his plate to the sink before turning around and heading to the staircase.

“Oh are you going to go upstairs and cry now?” His mother teases, clearly making fun of him.

Keith doesn’t answer. He continues to walk to the stairs, going up and to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He looks at Banjo on his bed and sighs.

“I can’t do it Banjo, I can’t stay here all week, it’s been a few hours and I already hate it. I need to leave.” 

He takes his phone out and posts on a completely black snapchat.

‘Can anyone take me back to Ann Arbor right now? I can’t spend break at home.’

Keith presses his face into his pillow and waits roughly fifteen minutes before he gets a message from a friend from high school, Hunk. He wipes his eyes before opening it to see Hunk’s reply.

 

Hunk- ‘You doing okay, Keith?’

Keith- ‘No. I want to go back to school. Can you please take me back there?’

Hunk- ‘Pack ur stuff ill be over in 10.’

 

Keith breathes a sigh of relief and turns to start packing the stuff he wants to take back to school with him. Once he’s all packed he messages Allura, telling her everything that happened in the few hours he got home. Allura won’t see it right away since she has a Thursday night class, but he’ll be able to talk to his best friend in a few hours when she gets the message.

Once he gets the text from Hunk that he’s outside Keith picks up his bags and walks out of his room and to the garage door, putting his shoes on. His mother walks out to where Keith is, seeing his bags on the floor and watching him put his jacket on.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His mother asks.

“Back to school.” He says, monotone.

“Oh, really? With what car?” His dad asks, joining the conversation.

“My friend, Hunk, is outside, he’s taking me back.” He says, looking up to make eye contact with his parents.

He holds it for a few moments before turning around and leaving. He hears a few calls from his parents and ignores them, not caring about them at all. He quickly gets to Hunk’s car and climbs into the passenger seat, setting his bags on the floor in front of him.

Keith looks up at Hunk and smiles, “thank you for doing this.”

“No problem man, I know how your parents are.” Hunk says, remembering everything that Keith and Allura would tell him. He makes his way out of the neighborhood and begins his drive to Keith’s college.

“Yeah,” Keith sighs and turns to look out the window. “They’re just so mean sometimes, I wouldn't have been able to spend the whole break with them, especially without Allura physically here to help me.”

“Well, now you don’t have to. You have friends at U of M right?”

Keith nods, he hasn’t made many, due to his closed off nature, but the ones he has made are nice to him. Spring break at school won’t be so bad, and he’ll be able to keep up in his classes if he spends at least a little time studying.

“Good.”

“Can you talk about the stuff you’ve been doing up at Baker? I just want to not think about anything right now.”

Hunk goes to the Culinary Institute of Michigan at Baker college in Muskegon. He’s always been an amazing cook so he decided to pursue a career in it, so far it had been going very well for him.

“Sure,” Hunk smiles before bringing up a random story he and his new friends got up to.

 

The drive to Ann Arbor takes roughly forty minutes, Hunk talking the whole way there. Keith laughs at every one of Hunk’s stupid stories, he’s certainly gotten more wild since starting college.

“There is no way you actually did that!” Keith laughs loudly.

“We did, I swear. My prof was so pissed off when she walked back into the room and my hair was covered in whipped egg whites, while my partner had the yokes covering her arms.”

“How does something like that even happen?” He exclaims, trying to calm his laugher down.

“I genuinely do not know, one minute we were starting to make the batter, the next our station was a mess, and my prof was about to murder the both of us.”

“Damn, that sounds horrible.” Keith giggles, trying to contain his laughter.

“It was, but we made it up. We ended up baking the best cake in the class in half the time, I don’t know how it managed to be fully cooked.”

“It’s because you’re magic, that’s why.” Keith says as Hunk pulls into a parking garage.

They step out of the car and Keith picks up the bags he packed. It’s not too much, most of the things he needs are already at his dorm. He leads Hunk down the street to his college’s building. He walks inside and signs Hunk in, taking him to the third floor where his dorm is.

All of Keith’s roommates went home for spring break, so it’s just him alone in the dorm for the week. He walks inside and starts putting away some of the things he brought with him while Hunk sits down.

Keith snaps a picture of a distracted Hunk and posts it to his snapchat story with an Ann Arbor filter, letting everyone know he got back to his dorm.

They talk for a bit before Keith gets a message from one of his friends who lives on campus, Lance McClain.

Keith looks down at his phone and smiles softly. He picks it up to look at the message when Hunk takes it from him before he has a chance to, wondering who got Keith to smile like that.

“Hunk, give that back!” Keith shouts, trying to grab his phone.

“Who’s Lance?” Hunk teases, holding it out of his reach.

“Hunk, seriously!” Keith nearly whines.

“I’ll give it back if you tell me, you never smile like that at your phone, unless you’re looking at pictures of your dog.”

“He’s just a friend, his name is Lance McClain. He’s from out of state, lives on campus.”

“And…?” Hunk presses.

“He’s kind of cute, okay. Can I have my phone back?”

Hunk hands it back, “he’s only kind of cute?”

“He’s very cute, and very nice. A little loud but he’s adorable. He’s studying to be an engineer, but he also takes a lot of pictures, and they’re really good.”

“You like him.”

“Obviously.” Keith rolls his eyes and opens the text message.

 

Lance- ‘Keith! You’re back on campus for break???’

Keith- ‘Yeah, im staying the whole break here’

Lance- ‘Sweet! Wanna hang out right now?’

Keith- ‘Yeah sure, come to my dorm im with one of my high school friends hunk rn’

Lance- ‘Omw’

 

Keith sets his phone down, “Lance is coming over, he’s gonna hang out with us for a bit.”

“Ooooooo, I get to meet the boy that made a rare Keith smile happen?” Hunk grins.

Keith rolls his eyes and pushes at Hunk lightly. Hunk laughs and pushes back, they mess around with each other for a bit before there’s a knock on Keith’s dorm room door.

Keith jumps off his couch and answers it, smiling when he sees Lance. “Hey, man.”

“Hey, Keith.” Lance grins back at him. 

Keith steps aside and let’s Lance walk into his dorm. Keith shuts the door and gestures to Hunk. 

“Lance, this is my friend Hunk. Hunk, this is Lance.”

Hunk and Lance introduce themselves to each other. Keith leads Lance to the small couch in his dorm and sits down, Lance sitting next to him.

“So what are you doing back at school?” Lance asks Keith. 

Keith sighs and looks at his lap. “My parents are assholes.” He says bluntly. 

“Oh… that… sucks.” Lance says, not sure what else to say.

“Yeah… I don’t want to drop my problems on you, but the gist of it is my parents suck, and I couldn’t handle staying there for the whole break, so I got Hunk to drive me back here.” 

Lance frowns, “that’s not good.”

Keith shakes his head, “no, but it’s fine. I got away for the week, I don’t have to go back home for a while, so, everything is good.”

“I guess,” Lance says, he leans over and gives Keith a loose hug.

Keith relaxes a bit and hugs him back, not wanting to make the moment awkward by sitting there stiff. He looks over Lance’s shoulder and sees Hunk smirking at him. He sticks his tongue out at him.

Lance pulls away and leans back on the couch, “well, at least now we can spend break together. Everyone else went back home or on their own little vacation.”

Hunk sits back, “a little vacation sounds nice, relaxing.”

Keith shrugs, “any day I’m away from my parents is a vacation.”

“That’s… Really sad man.” Lance says quietly.

Hunk nods, agreeing with Lance, “yeah… vacation is more like going to the beach and stuff, having fun with friends. Being happy.”

Lance smiles, “I miss the beach. It’s the best part of living in Miami.”

“How is living in Florida?” Keith asks, turning to look at Lance.

Lance’s smile grows, “it’s fantastic. I love it, I mean, Michigan is great and all but it’s no Florida, where it’s warm and has citrus fruit everywhere, and quick routes to beaches on every corner. Every other weekend me and my siblings would go to the beach and swim, build sandcastles, mess with each other.”

“That’s sounds great, beaches are hard to find here, you have to go out of your way for something like that.” Keith says.

“When I was younger, before my little brother was old enough, my older brother and sister used to sneak me out of the house at night and we’d go to the beach together, my brother would throw me into the water as high as she could, I was like five and he was thirteen, so it was pretty high. We used to play for hours and we’d have to sneak back into the house without getting caught. I found out later on that my mom always knew, and she had my dad watch us while we played around, to make sure we didn’t drown.”

“That sounds great, it’s sweet that your older siblings would do that for you.” Hunk says.

“Yeah, when I got older I started doing it for my younger brother. It became a silly tradition.”

“What happens when he gets older?”

“I have a lot of cousins that live near us, they’ll carry on the tradition with them.”

“That’s really cute.” Keith says, sincerely. 

“Yeah it is, as long as someone is always watching the kids, what happens if someone gets eaten by a shark?” Hunk says.

Lance blinks at him and Keith rolls his eyes, “Stop being so nervous, you just heard him, his dad watches the kids when they’re playing. Anyway, I think it’s cute that his family is like that with each other. I wish I had it.”

“You have your older brother, Shiro, and Allura.” Hunk says, trying to bring Keith up a bit.

“Yeah, I do, but Allura isn’t related to me, and Takashi moved out a while ago.” He says before turning to Lance again, wanting to bring back an uplifting topic. “So the beaches in Florida are nice?”

“They’re the best, I love the beaches, other than my family, what I miss most about home are the beaches, you don’t have any of those here.”

“We do, well sort of. We have the great lakes, but they’re all still freezing this time of year.” Hunk says. “They’re still all really nice though.”

“I guess, I mean, I have heard that northern Michigan is beautiful this time of year, even if it is still freezing.” Lance says, sitting back on the couch.

“It really is, but you’re right, it’s still cold.” Hunk says. “My family has a lake house up in Beulah, it’s way up here.” He holds out his hand in a mitten shape, pointing out where in Michigan he’s from.

“Damn, lucky. I wish I could see it, take pictures and stuff, even if my Floridian ass would be freezing the whole time.” 

“Well, we could go.” Hunk says.

Both Lance and Keith look up at Hunk, “what?” they ask at the same time, this is completely unlike Hunk, spontaneous is not his thing at all.

“We could go. I can ask my parents for the house keys. They’ve been kind of on my ass lately for not doing anything, said I need to stop being so scared and nervous all the time and embrace the world around me now that I’m in college.. What’s better than a random road trip up north?”

“Dude seriously? That would be amazing!” Lance says, sitting up attentively. 

“Why not? We’re all adults. We can all pile into my car, drive up there and stay for a few days, even go to the sleeping bear dunes, they aren’t too far from the house. Lance can take pictures while we’re up there too, it’ll be fun.”

Keith thinks for a moment, his parents would be beyond pissed off if Keith just up and left for a few days, but then again, he’s pissed at his parents. A spontaneous road trip with his friends that his parents claim he doesn’t have would definitely get back at them, not just proving them wrong, but being rebellious in the act.

He sits up, resting his elbows on his knees as he bends his back. “I’m in. Let’s do this.”

Lance grins and throws his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “Hell yeah!”

Hunk stands up, “I’ll call my parents right now, so they can get the keys and stuff ready for us to go.”

He walks out into the hall to make the call to his mother. Lance butts his head with Keith’s, the biggest smile plastered onto his face.

“This is gonna be so much fun!”

Keith nods, “yeah, it will. You’ll probably be able to get a lot of cool pictures while we’re up there.”

“I hope so. I can’t wait. I should call my parents, let them know what I’m doing this break, make sure they don’t worry. You should tell your parents too.”

Keith stiffens. “If I ask they’re only going to tell me no.”

“So don’t ask. Just tell them that you’re doing this so they know where you are.”

Keith considers this, he really should tell his parents what he’s doing, even if he’s mad at them. Lance stands up and walks to the other side of his room to call his father. Keith picks up his phone and opens the messages from his mother. There’s a few from her already, calling him ungrateful, paragraph text boxes lecturing him.

He ignores them and types out his message.

 

Keith- ‘Im going up north with my friends hunk and lance. Hunks family has a lake house in beulah’

 

He puts his phone down face up and ignores the excessive texts his parents are sending him. He watches each of the messages light up his phone, not reading or opening any of them.

It’s a few minutes before his phone starts to ring. He expects it to be his mother or father, but it’s his older half brother calling.

Keith picks his phone up and answers. “Hi, Takashi.” 

“Hey, Keith. Mom just called me-”

Keith frowns and interrupts him. “If you’re only calling to lecture me-”

“No. No, god no. I’m not going to lecture you.” Shiro says quickly. “Mom called and told me a lot of stuff, and a lot of it sounds like bullshit. I’m calling to hear your side of the story, and ask if you’re okay.”

Keith relaxes, relieved his brother is willing to hear what he has to say, and already knows exactly how their parents are.

“Well, I was at the dinner table with everyone, and we were talking about school and stuff, and they brought up spring break and how I didn’t have any plans, and how Allura is still at school, even though her spring break doesn’t align with mine and she lives in New York. Well then they started to insult me, saying I don’t have any friends and just over all being assholes to me, so I left the dinner table and went to my room and asked Hunk to take me back to school, and he did, so now I’m here.”

Shiro hums, “yeah, that sounds about right. Mom was trying to tell me something completely different. They’re pretty manipulative, you know.”

“I’m very well aware of how they are. They both keep texting me, telling me how I’m a horrible son for hurting their feelings by leaving.”

His brother sighs, “you’re not a horrible son, Keith.”

“I know, I know. I try to tell myself that, that it’s just them, and that I’m not as horrible as they say, but it’s hard, you know? When they say it constantly it’s hard not to believe it…”

“Yeah, I know. Trust me, it gets easier once you move out, and are able to get a lot of therapy.”

“I hope so, but for now I’m stuck there. At least I have you.”

“I’m always here for you little bro, and there are places on your college campus that you can get help, counselling and such, you should use them. There is another thing I want to ask you though.”

“What is it?”

“Mom says you’re trying to run away.”

“… I’m not running away, just going on a little unplanned road trip…”

“Keith!” Shiro laughs, “that’s running away, man!”

“I’m telling them where I’m going! Hunk has a lake house upstate, it sounds nice so me and Lance are going with him. We’re leaving tomorrow morning and going to spend a few days up there.”

“Lance?”

“Uh, yeah, he’s a friend.”

“A… friend?”

Keith blushes, and tries to hide his face, even though Shiro can’t see him. “It’s nothing more than that. He’s just a nice boy who goes to school with me.”

“You know, Matt was once just a nice boy who went to school with me. But, if you say he’s just a friend, I’ll play along because you’re clearly lying to me.”

Keith rolls his eyes, “yeah yeah, is that all you wanted to talk about now?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you were okay and everything. Keep me updated okay? You don’t have to text me every twenty minutes but when you’re on the road an update every few hours would be nice, it’s a long drive and the roads are still a little icy.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

“And text mom or dad every once in awhile, okay? They suck yeah, but don’t let them worry too much, they’ll be even worse if you don’t update them.”

Keith sighs, he knows his brother is right, he’ll give them small updates throughout the trip. “Yeah, okay. I will.”

“Okay, have a safe trip. I love you.”

“Love you too, Takashi.” 

Keith hangs up the phone and sets it down. He feels a bit better after talking to his brother, he always does. Shiro always reassures him that he’s not crazy or being ungrateful, his parents really are terrible to him.

Lance walks over and sits back down next to Keith. “My parents are excited for me, and they demanded I take as many pictures as possible.”

Keith smiles, “that’s cute.”

“Yeah. So who were you talking to?”

“My older brother, Takashi. He was worried for me, my parents told him I left back to school and now I’m running away apparently. He knows how they are though, he’s on my side on this.”

Lance grins, “good. You have your older brother defending you. Hunk called him Shiro earlier though, why?”

“We have different fathers and he goes by his last name to others, which is Shirogane. Me and my family call him Takashi, which is his first name. His boyfriend, Matt calls him that too.” Keith explains.

Lance nods, understanding this. Hunk walks back inside from the hallway. They both look over at him, finding him smiling wide.

“I take it your parents are giving you the keys?” Keith asks

He nods, “yup. They’re happy I’m doing something like this, but they also gave me a list of chores I need to complete before I leave, so we’re probably going to have to leave later in the day. I should go home now, so I can get my car ready and get some sleep at home, and finish everything they want me to do before we have to leave.”

“That’s cool, so we’ll meet back at Keith’s dorm tomorrow? You can just keep us updated on a time.” Lance asks.

“Yeah, Keith can put us in a group chat and I’ll text the time we’ll leave at? It’ll probably be late afternoon, early evening.”

“Sounds good to me.” Keith says, pulling out his phone to create the group chat right away.

“Me too. I’m gonna get going now.” Hunk says.

“I should get back to my dorm, get some sleep and pack a little bag.” Lance says, standing up.

Keith stands up and gives Hunk a tight hug. “Thank you, so much.”

Hunk hugs him back tight, “it’s no problem, Keith.”

The two break off and Keith walks the two boys to the door. He waves them goodbye and shuts the door behind them, locking it. Keith turns around to look over his room and smiles, this spring break is really turning around for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed <3 Next Chapter will be up tomorrow!  
> Comment and Kudos please its how i measure my self worth  
> You can contact me at [my voltron tumblr Shiroskitten](http://shiroskitten.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drive up to Hunk’s lake house, followed by cute moments under the stars and waffles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m making this fic as cheesy as possible and there’s NOTHING u can do about it

The next day Keith wakes up around noon to a text message from Hunk, saying he should be done with everything by six, and he’ll be on his way then. He puts in a few shirts and an extra pair of pants, adding some sweatpants. 

As he’s packing his back he sets up his phone to facetime his best friend, Allura. He props it against a few books on a nearby table so he can talk to her while he packs.

“Hello, Keith.” She smiles when she answers the call, her face filling up the screen.

“Hey, Allura.” Keith grins back, he really does miss his best friend. The last time he saw her seems like years ago, even though it was just a few months.

“I miss you. Can you explain what’s going on with your family?”

“I miss you too.” He sighs. “I got home last night, after my dad picked me up and I was only home for maybe two hours before they started insulting me, not just little backhanded things here and there like it usually is, my mom was in a bad mood and snapped at me first thing she got home, they started insulting me for not having any friends at school when that’s not true, and they were just harassing me.”

“That really sucks. I’m sorry all of that was happening to you.” She doesn’t fully understand the extent of how bad his parents really are, she’s seen a few things and heard a million from Keith himself, but never experienced the same abuse Keith has, but she sympathizes for him.

“I couldn’t take it so I got Hunk to pick me up and take me back to my dorm, and I’m going to spend the rest of break not at home.”

She smiles softly, “Hunk, I miss him, how has he been doing?”

“Pretty good, he’s doing well at Baker, I’m happy for him.”

“Me too. Yesterday you mentioned something about a road trip in your text, what’s that about?”

“Well, my friend Lance, you remember him right?”

“Yeah, Keith, I remember Lance.” She grins, knowingly.

“Shut up. Well, Lance came by my dorm with me and Hunk and we started talking about northern Michigan, and how it’s really pretty this time of year. Hunk’s family has a lake house up in Beulah, so we decided to make a little impromptu road trip and go up there for a few days.”

“Keith! You can’t just leave without telling your parents! Even if they’re shitty you can’t do that!”

“I told them, and I told Takashi, they know, don’t worry.”

She relaxes a bit, “okay. What did they say?”

“You better not go, but I’m doing it anyway. I want to have fun, and I don’t want to get stuck on campus all break, a few days up north sounds fun, and Hunk and Lance will be fun to go with.”

“Yeah, yeah I understand. It’ll be fun, and good for you to get out and have some unplanned fun. It’s going to be cold so pack another jacket, not just your red and white one.”

“I have already, don’t worry about me. I’m going to be fine.”

“Well I know that, you’re going on a road trip with Laaaannceeee.” She teases, giggling when a light flush comes over his cheeks.

“Shut up.” He grumbles.

“Well, if you’re sure this is a good idea, go for it.”

“I am, and hey, if this goes well, maybe over the summer we can do something like this together.”

“If this goes well you and Lance will be doing something like this over the summer.” Allura says, still teasing.

“Well, he lives in Miami, soooooo, road trip to see him over the summer?”

Allura giggles, “sounds great, I’m already starting to plan it, so don’t mess this up with him. I wanna see some Florida beaches.”

Keith laughs with her, relaxing a bit. It feels good to talk about his situation to someone who cares for him. Allura taps her screen, looking at the time and sighs.

“I have to get going, I have a study group and I need to go, this class is kicking my ass. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, or at the very least text you or something.”

Keith nods, “okay, I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She gives him a soft smile before hanging up.

He puts his phone down and zips up his bag now that he has everything in it, and begins to get dressed. He dresses warm, knowing it’s going to be freezing up north. He puts on a thick pair of jeans as well as a long sleeve shirt under his usual red and white jacket, adding a scarf, hat, and gloves with fingers instead of his usual fingerless ones. He’s pulling on his boots when there’s a knock on the door at around five thirty.

Keith stand up to answer it to find a grinning Lance standing there with a packed backpack, with his camera bag slung around his right shoulder, and a separate blanket in his arm with his signature green jacket on. Keith steps aside to let him in his dorm.

“You look prepared.” Keith notes with a grin

“I am.” Lance says. “It’s going to get cold up there, I want to be prepared. I have two blankets with me, and I packed an extra sweatshirt just in case.”

“Were you some kind of boy scout?”

“No, but I would have been the best one if I was.” Lance smirks.

Keith rolls his eyes and sits back down, putting his other boot on. “Hunk is on his way here, you’re all packed right? Did you pack a winter coat? It’s going to get even colder up there.”

“Yup, I have my winter coat right here.” He gestures to what’s hanging in the crook of his arm “And I have everything else I need, camera, clothes, blankets, phone and chargers. I’m good.”

Keith stands up to pack his own phone charger, having almost forgotten. “Good, I’m packed up too. Hunk said he’s picking up dinner from McDonald's, said it’s not a real road trip unless we eat terrible fast food on the way there.”

“He’s right.” Lance sits on the couch, Keith taking a seat next to him once he puts his phone charger away.

Lance rambles on about all the things he’s excited to do when they get there. It mostly revolves around taking pictures of the scenery, as well as seeing how cold the water really is in the great lakes in March, since Miami beach water is warm all year round, a warm seventy five degrees in March, unlike the west coast waters.

“Dude you’re going to freeze your ass off if you try and touch the water this time of year.” Keith laughs.

“I just want to touch it, I don’t want to swim. Is it really going to be that cold?”

“Yes.”

“Well… I’ll be the judge of that when we get there.”

“You know Beulah isn’t even on a great lake. It’s on Crystal Lake.”

Lance blinks, “is that not a great lake?”

Keith shakes his head, “no it is not. Did you never learn the acronym for the great lakes?”

It’s Lance’s turn to shake his head, looking clueless. Keith sighs, “H.O.M.E.S. Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. We’ll be closest to Lake Michigan, but we won’t actually be on that lake.”

“Oh… well, I still want to feel the water, even if it isn’t one of your famous lakes.”

“It’ll be just as amazing, I promise.”

“I’m holding you to that.” Lance says firmly, leaning closer to Keith.

“Okay, but I won’t let you down, I promise.” Keith says, instinctively leaning closer to Lance as a response.

Hunk texts Keith immediately after, saying that he’s outside and doesn’t want to pay for parking so they should just meet him outside the building. 

Keith stands up and throws his winter coat over the light jacket he’s already wearing. Michigan weather sucks, a lot. He picks up his bag, leading Lance outside his dorm, making sure to lock it behind him. They walk down the stairs and wave goodbye to the security at the front desk before leaving the building. They find Hunk’s car parked in front of the building, waiting for the two of them.

Keith opens the passenger side door, getting inside and sitting down. He puts his bag down at his feet, putting his seatbelt on.

Lance does the same, getting in the backseat and putting his seatbelt on before pulling a blanket over his lap, getting comfortable.

“I got us some dinner from McDonald’s, there’s a big mac in one and chicken nuggets in the other” Hunk says, holding up two paper bags filled with delicious greasy food.

“Thank’s man! I’ll take the nugs.” Lance says.

“No problem. There’s no reason we should be traveling on an empty stomach.” Hunk says, handing one bag back to Lance. “I also went to the grocery store so I can make something for us when we get there instead of us having to constantly go get fast food.”

“Hunk is in culinary school, he doesn’t like fast food too much.” Keith tells Lance, taking out the burger container.

“Sweet, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two about cooking on this trip.” Lance says with a mouth full of fries.

“I can try to teach you if you want.” Hunk says, starting his car back up and getting on the road.

Lance nods and they eat their dinner in mostly silence, the radio playing softly in the background. Hunk hums along, pulling onto the highway, Keith’s phone has the GPS pulled up, at the time they left, six thirty, they have roughly three hours and forty five minutes left of the car ride.

Keith stuffs his and Lance’s garbage from breakfast into a single paper bag and puts it down, figuring they’ll throw it out when they get there. Keith looks out the window for a few minutes before he turns to Hunk.

“Can I plug my phone in?” Keith asks.

“Sure, why?”

“To play some music that isn’t the same four pop songs playing over and over again.”

“Hey, I like those four pop songs.” Hunk says, a little offended. “Don’t hate on Niall Horan, slow hands is a literal masterpiece.”

“I agree with you Hunk, but we’ve been on the road for less than half an hour, if I hear it one more time I’m gonna scream.” Lance says, supporting Keith’s decision.

“Okay, okay. You’re right, but nothing too emo Keith, that means nothing from my chem’s first album, and no bullet for my valentine.”

Keith grumbles, mumbling how both those bands are amazing, and Hunk shouldn’t be so critical to judge them. He plugs his phone in and opens spotify, putting it on shuffle, he hires the volume all the way, the music won’t play off the aux cord if it isn’t up all the way.

The first song that comes on is Ohio Is For Lovers, Hunk immediately glares at Keith. 

“What did I just say, Keith.”

Keith grumbles, “fuck you, Hawthorne Heights is great.” He clicks next and Colors by Halsey starts playing

Hunk sits back, “Halsey’s less emo, barely emo at all. Good.”

Keith rolls his eyes and looks out the window while Hunk drives. About twenty minutes later Lance shifts in the backseat, moving to lay down for a bit. He lifts the blanket up to cover his body, resting his head on his backpack.

He’s asleep for maybe an hour, Keith and Hunk making small talk for a bit, Hunk brings up Lance a few times but Keith is quick to shut it down, every time with a light blush and a change of topic.

 

They’re two hours into the five hour trip, Keith has his legs curled up, looking out the window while music plays in the background. He hums along quietly, watching the scenery pass by. 

He texted his brother ten minutes ago, telling him that they’re about halfway through the trip now. He’s been texting Shiro every once in awhile, keeping him updated on where they are on the trip.

Keith texted his mother a bit ago as well, telling her the same thing he told Shiro, that he’s two hours into the trip, and half way there. She didn’t take it as well, texting him in all caps to come back home. He ignored it.

Keith shifts his leg a bit only to accidentally pull the aux cord out of his phone. The radio blares Strip That Down by Liam Payne, making everyone in the car jump. Lance sits up abruptly, hitting his head on the roof of the car.

“Fuck!” He shouts, rubbing his head.

Keith quickly plugs the aux cord back into his phone, “Shit, sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” He says after they’ve all recovered from the sudden loud music.

Lance rubs his face, “It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting that kind of wake up call.” He laughs it off. “Hey, Hunk, you wanna switch? Let me drive for a bit?”

Hunk looks at the time, they have roughly an hour and forty five minutes left, he figures he can let Lance drive for a bit, then switch again so he can drive the last bit on his way to the lake house.

“Yeah, sure.” Hunk says.

Keith looks over, “you’re really going to let him drive your car?”

“Yeah, I’m living on the edge.” Hunk says as he pulls over. “We’re going for two, three days, I figured I might as well be a little reckless, letting someone I’ve known for less than a day drive my car seems like a perfect idea.”

Hunk and Lance get out of the car, switching places so Lance can start driving. Hunk buckles himself up in the backseat, looking out the window. Lance adjusts the seat and turns the car back on, starting to drive. He follows the gps, getting them back onto the road.

Lance drives for a while, talking with Keith about school for a bit, spring break only means in a few months they’ll be caught up with finals, and probably won’t be able to talk too much during that time.

 

It’s about an hour of Lance driving before he notices they’re a tick before empty on the gas gage. 

“Hey, can you find me the closest gas station?” He asks Keith.

Keith nods and picks up his phone, changing the course to the nearest gas station. “It’s, uh, off the next exit, less than a mile on that road.”

Lance nods and takes the nearest exit, it’s barely a minute before he’s turning into the gas station, pulling up next to a pump. Hunk and Lance both get out of the car, Hunk going inside to pay and get them some drinks while Lance pumps the gas.

Keith picks up his phone and texts Shiro again, telling him they’ve stopped to pump gas and they’re a half an hour away from the lake house. He texts back telling him to text him before they go to bed so he knows that they got there safe.

Lance taps on Keith’s window, so he’ll roll it down. Keith puts his phone back down and opens the window.

“What’s up?”

“I was just going to tell you that me and Hunk are probably going to switch after this, there’s only like a half an hour of this trip left.”

Keith checks the time, it’s ten past eleven pm, by the time they get there it’ll be passed eleven thirty, they might just end up going straight to bed, unless there’s something specific they want to do.

Hunk comes back and gets in the front seat while Lance stays outside, watching the pump. He hands Keith the vernors he asked for and reaches over Keith to hand Lance the faygo he got him through the window.

Lance looks at the red bottle skeptical. “What is this?”

Hunk blinks at him, processing before going. “You said get you anything. I got you a red pop.”

“I’ve never heard of this brand before. What the fuck kind of flavor is a red pop?.”

“You’ve gone to school in Michigan for over a year and a half and you’ve never had a faygo?” Keith says, a little offended.

“Is it like a Michigan only brand?” Lance says, cracking the bottle open a bit so it doesn’t fizz over.

“It’s mostly a Michigan thing. Try it, red pop and rock and rye are two of their signature flavors.”

Lance opens the bottle the rest of the way and takes a sip, he makes a face before taking another and softening. He licks his lips and closes the bottle.

“It’s weird, but I like it… I think.”

Hunk laughs, “well for the next half an hour you can drink it to make up your mind, but careful it stains your mouth red.”

“Good to know.” He hands the bottle to Keith so he can put it in the backseat and goes back to the gas pump, taking the nozzle out now that the tank is full.

Keith sets it in the cup holder in the backseat while Lance finishes up outside, putting things away before opening the door and getting inside, buckling his seatbelt on.

“We good to go?” Hunk asks.

“Yeah, everything’s good.” Lance says.

Hunk adjusts his seat to fit himself again before turning on the car and driving out of the gas station and back onto the road.

Lance sits back in his seat and watches the scenery go by from the window. It’s dark, not much to seen at all, but the lights leading down to the freeway make the leftover snow glisten in the artificial light.

“Do you think there’s going to be snow up there?”

“It probably won’t snow but there might be some left over from last month.” Hunk says.

“Cool.” Lance says, smiling.

There’s almost no one else on the freeway with them, despite it only being eleven thirty at night. It’s like it’s three am, everyone asleep except these three, alone in the world, just the road and a loosely placed destination. It’s peaceful really, Keith likes it better this way.

 

Hunk exits off the freeway not long after that, he turns into a side street, looping around dirt roads with familiar ease, ignoring what the gps says, he doesn’t need it anymore. Keith turns it off, letting Hunk take the lead as he cuts through a little town.

It’s barely another mile before Hunk is pulling into the driveway of a large, very nice looking lake house.

“Holy crap.” Lance says. “When you said lake house, I’m gonna be honest, I thought you meant like a cabin.”

Hunk shakes his head, “nope. My parents live a comfortable lifestyle, I’m their only child and my dad works a six-figure job, so they were able to buy this place. Come on, let’s go inside.”

He picks his bag up from the backseat and takes out the keys to the house, getting out of the car. Keith and Lance both grab their own stuff and step out of the car, following Hunk to the front steps of the house. 

Hunk unlocks the door and turns on the lights, walking inside. He drops his bag at the front and walks through the house, going to the sliding glass door, leading to the back patio. The other two both follow him through the house and outside, smiling at the sight before them.

It’s a backyard full of grass that tapers off into sand, leading down a hill to Lake Crystal. The clear sky reflects off the water, showing every star in the sky and the moon. The view really is breathtaking. 

Keith steps off the patio and onto the grass, Lance disappears inside as Hunk walks closer to Keith, he puts his arm around his shoulders as they look out at the lake. Keith points over at specific things he likes, specifically the two swans swimming together on the lake.

A few minutes later, camera in hand, Lance comes back outside. Neither Hunk or Keith notice his arrival, both preoccupied with themselves. Lance adjusts the camera to the low lighting and steps behind the two boys before finding a good angle and snapping a picture of them before they notice.

The two hear the camera click and turn around to see Lance grinning at the two of them. Keith shakes his head and Lance walks closer, standing next to him.

“It’s a cute picture,” Lance says, showing it to him.

Keith nods, “yeah, it is, but there are better things to take pictures of here.”

Lance shakes his head, “I don’t think so.” He says quietly.

Keith’s cheek color lightly, he turns his head and tells himself it’s just the cold. Lance smiles softly and walks away from Keith and Hunk, going down to the grass, towards the Lake.

Once he’s there he looks up at the clear sky, making note of each star he sees. He feels someone walk up next to him, and smiles when he realizes it’s Keith.

“What are you looking at?” He asks.

“Constellations. It’s a great night for them, especially because we’re away from any kind of city, we can actually see the stars.”

Keith looks up, it’s much clearer than how it is in Ann Arbor, or even when he goes back home to visit his family, it’s the first time he’s seen real stars in months, he’s missed it a lot.

“I’ve always loved the stars, but I’ve never been able to point out constellations.” He says, not taking his eyes away from the sky.

“I can fix that.” Lance takes Keith’s hand and uses it to point at the north star. “Look right there.”

“What about there?” Keith asks.

“That’s the north star, now you follow it, and,” he traces a few other stars with Keith’s finger, pointing out the big dipper. “That’s the big dipper.”

“Wow, I’ve never noticed that before.” Keith breaths out, looking up at the constellation.

“There are so many more this time of year as well, like over there.” He uses Keith’s hand to point out many different constellations, each as beautiful as the last.

“And That’s Orion right there, and his belt there. He’s going to disappear soon, it’s not visible in the summer months up here, I remember reading about that.” Lance says.

Keith nods, looking intently at Orion’s belt. He can really see every constellation Lance pointed out to him, shining bright in the night sky. Keith turns his head, stepping closer to Lance in an effort to keep warm.

Lance gasps suddenly and turns to face Keith, brushing their noses together. Lance doesn’t question why Keith was looking at him instead of they sky.

“Look up!”

Keith does as told, about to ask why when a shooting star flies across the sky, the first one Keith has ever seen. He gasps himself, a smile growing on his face. It’s the last thing he expected to see tonight, but it’s fitting, really.

Keith closes his eyes and makes a wish.

 

They’re outside for another half an hour, watching the sky. The meteor shower ended a while ago, but Lance continued to show Keith the constellations still visible to them. They’ve pressed closer together now, trying to feed off of each other’s body heat.

“We should go inside, you look like you’re freezing your ass off.” Lance says to Keith.

Keith shivers, “I’m fine out here, it’s you who’s cold.” 

Lance rolls his eyes playfully and puts his hand on the small of Keith’s back, leading him inside. Hunk went in a while ago, to set up the bedrooms for them to sleep in and turn the heat on so they don’t freeze while they sleep.

As they walk inside they’re immediately hit with the smell of Hunk cooking in the kitchen. They walk over and see Hunk standing by the stove, spooning batter into a waffle maker.

“Hey, man, Whatcha cookin?” Lance asks, walking over to Hunk to see what he’s making.

“Waffles, I found a waffle maker in the cupboard. No one should sleep on an empty stomach. I already set up the rooms for us, the heat has been running for a little while so it’s not so freezing in here anymore.”

“Thanks, dude.” Lance grins.

“No problem, can you set the table?”

Lance nods and turns around, shuffling around each cabinet before finding the plates and pulling out three of them. He sets them on the table while Keith finds cups, pouring each of them glass of water to go with their waffles. They find the silverware and napkins no problem, by the time they’ve finished setting everything up Hunk has finished with the waffles.

He brings the tray over and sets it on the table, sitting down. The three boys reach over and start stacking their plates high with the warm breakfast food.

“Breakfast food for dinner is the best meal.” Keith says, cutting into his waffle.

Lance nods, “‘s fantastic!” he says through a mouthful food.

Keith scrunches up his nose, “don’t talk with your mouth full nasty.”

Hunk nods, “yeah, don’ talk wif your mou’ full.” He says, also talking with a mouthful of waffle.

Keith grimaces again, “you two are gross.” He grumbles while the other two laugh, not bothering to cover their mouths.

 

After the boys are done with their waffles, Keith and Lance pick up the dishes, telling Hunk that because he cooked, it’s only fair they clean up the mess. They send him off upstairs to finish getting the bedrooms ready for them.

Once they’re finished with the dishes and wiping down the table, making sure everything is as clean as they found it they grab their bags and walk upstairs to find Hunk in the spare bedroom, spreading out a few more blankets and adding extra pillows.

“I added extra pillows and blankets in case you guys get cold, there’s more in the closet in the hallway if you need and there is a couch downstairs available if you two don’t want to share a bed.” Hunk says, stepping away from it.

“I’m fine with sharing.” Lance turns to Keith, “you?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keith clears his throat. “Sharing a bed is fine.” He says, trying to keep his cool.

“Good, now it’s late, and I’m tired as all hell. I’m gonna hit the hay, night guys.” Hunk pats Keith’s shoulder on the way out.

Lance puts his bag on the bed and pulls out the sweatpants he packed with him. Keith does the same, pulling out the clothes he packed to sleep in. He already agreed to sleep next to Lance, and he doesn’t want to back out, even if he’ll likely be flustered the whole night. He tries to shake it off, Lance was fine with sharing without a problem, he should be fine too.

Lance starts stripping, pulling off his shirt before taking his jeans off and changing into his much more comfortable sweatpants. Keith looks away, not wanting to creepily watch Lance change, even if he does look really, really good without a shirt on. He starts to put his own pajamas on, consisting of warm sweatpants and a ratty old t-shirt he got while in high school. Keith turns around when he’s done changing and flushes when he notices Lance never put a shirt on.

It’s a completely normal thing, plenty of guys sleep without shirts on, Keith doesn’t know why he’s so flustered by this. He shakes his head, telling himself that just because Lance is an attractive man who is very nice, and caring, doesn’t mean Keith needs to fall head first into this whole.

Lance’s back is turned to him, he’s plugging his phone charger into the outlet next to the bed, making sure everything that he has that needs to be fully charged for tomorrow, will be charged.

Keith picks up his phone and texts his brother, telling him that he arrived safe and sound and they’re about to go to bed now, and he’ll call him in the morning after he wakes up.

He texts his mother as well, telling her the same, that he arrived safe, only he doesn’t tell her that he’ll call in the morning. He’s going to try and avoid talking to his parents as much as possible while he’s up north.

Once he’s done with the texts he sets his phone down and plugs it in, making sure it’s charging before he turns to get into the bed. Lance is already under the covers, snug as a bug in a rug.

“You look cozy.” Keith comments, pulling back the covers so he can lay down with him.

“Yeah, now hurry up and get under the covers with me, you’re letting cold air in.” Lance says, rolling to lay on his side, facing Keith.

Keith smiles, finding him pretty adorable. “You wouldn’t be so cold if you had a shirt on.”

“Now you sound like my mother,” Lance says, rolling his eyes.

Keith laughs lightly and gets under the covers, cozying up the same as Lance did. It’s already warm from Lance’s body heat, quickly warming up Keith’s cold body. Lance relaxes under the covers, closing his eyes, he’s halfway to sleep when he mumbles a quiet good night to Keith.

“Sweet dreams, Lance.” Keith says quietly, smiling fondly over the other boys sleeping body before settles down himself. He closes his eyes, sleep taking over quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up tomorrow!! I had a lot of fun writing this one, particularly the Allura and Keith face time call and the star scene  
> Comment and Kudos please its how i measure my self worth  
> You can contact me at [my voltron tumblr Shiroskitten](http://shiroskitten.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adventures ensue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing Keith and Allura's friendship tbh

The next morning Keith wakes up to his cheek pressed against Lance’s bare chest, an arm draped across his waist. Keith snuggles into the warm body, just for a moment he lets himself indulge in a cuddle.

After a minute he pulls back and rolls over to check his phone, noting the early time. Shiro texted him back last night, telling Keith he’ll call during his lunch break instead of the morning. His parents read his text but didn’t reply, that didn’t bother Keith too much, if they’re not going to make an effort neither is he.

He lays back in the bed, snuggling into the blankets, closing his eyes for a brief moment before he steps out of the bed, careful not to disturb Lance, Keith wants to make sure he gets as much sleep as he needs.

He walks downstairs as careful as he can not to creek any floor boards, Hunk isn’t awake yet, if he were Keith would have heard him walking around by now. He quietly makes his way to the back door, slipping his boots on and walking onto the patio.

He shuts the door behind him and closes his eyes, breathing in the cool air. It’s still early, the sun hasn’t risen yet. Keith relaxes, it’s peaceful being outside, left alone with his thoughts for a bit.

“It’s nice, yeah?” Lance’s voice breaks Keith out of his thoughts, making him flinch violently as he turns around.

“Jesus dude, you scared the crap out of me.” Keith puts his hand to his heart, breathing out.

“Sorry,” Lance smiles sheepishly, “I just woke up, saw you weren’t in bed next to me, figured you’d be out here. I was planning on getting some pictures of the sunrise.” He holds up his camera for Keith to see.

“Yeah, I just woke up early, wanted some fresh air. You wanna go down further, to get the sun rising over the lake itself?”

Lance nods, “yeah, come on.” He starts walking, Keith following behind him.

They get to the edge of the lake, it’s still pretty dark out, the sun barely coming up. Lance starts to set up his camera, wanting to get perfect pictures of the sun rising over the lake, hoping it reflects the way he wants it to.

Keith stands back and watches him, crossing his arms loosely around his body in an effort to keep warm. He shivers slightly, kicking himself for not bringing his jacket when he left the bedroom. The sun starts to rise over the lake, lighting up the horizon in beautiful reds and oranges. 

Keith closes his eyes and breaths in the fresh air, clearing his head a bit, listening to the sounds of nature around him. The wind shaking the branches, a few birds chirping, just waking up, the clicks of Lance’s camera, all in the background of Keith’s thoughts.

He’s lost in his own mind, not thinking about anything in particular, when he feels Lance put something around his shoulders. Keith opens his eyes to find himself nose to nose with a soft smiling Lance.

“You’re shivering.” Lance says, “you need my jacket more than I do.” He straightens it on Keith’s shoulders, letting his fingers linger for a moment too long before turning back to his camera.

Keith stares at Lance’s back, a little shocked by the gesture, but not refusing it. He slips his hands through the arm holes and lets himself relax into the jacket, it smells like Lance. He watches him take pictures of the sunrise, seeing him capture truly beautiful ones.

“Those look nice.” Keith comments after a moment, not wanting the silence to grow awkward.

Lance grins but doesn’t look away from his camera, continuing to snap photos. “Thank you. Back home they call me sharpshooter, because I shoot the best moments with my camera.”

“Somehow I doubt that name, but you do take beautiful pictures.” Keith grins.

“They do, really. I’m a great shot. You’ll see for sure when I show you these.” Lance says, capturing a few more pictures before standing up.

The sun has fully risen now, lighting up the lakeside. They take a few moments to appreciate the beauty in real time, watching the lake sparkle in the sunlight, the leftover snow on the trees glisten. 

“Have you touched the water yet?” Keith asks.

Lance shakes his head, “no, not yet. Should I now?”

“Yeah, man. Do it, then you’ll see how cold it really is up here.” Keith walks with him down to the very edge of the water.

Lance stands there for a moment before reaching down, pressing his palm to the water and immediately pulling back.

“Shit! Oh my god that’s so cold! What the hell?”

Keith stiffles his laughter, “Lance, what did you expect? There’s snow on the treetops right now!”

“The beaches in Miami don’t get cold, that’s why we have hurricanes, but it’s worth it because that was fucking freezing!”

Keith can’t hold in his laughter any longer, letting it out with a loud bark. Lance looks back at Keith slightly offended. “I live in Florida! I’m not used to this shit! Being cold is a terrible thing!”

Keith covers his mouth, trying to contain himself but unable to, “god, that’s priceless.” He giggles.

Lance stands back up and shakes his hand off. He steps closer to Keith and wipes his cold hand on his shirt, under the jacket Lance loaned him. Keith yelps and jumps back before playfully pushing Lance.

“That’s so cold!”

“Yeah, no shit!” Lance says with a shit eating grin.

Keith puts his hands in Lance’s jacket pockets, trying to warm himself up. He steps away from the lake, not wanting to get any closer to the freezing water. He shivers and turns to look back at the house, seeing the lights on in the kitchen. He looks back at Lance and gestures with his head back to the house.

Lance looks over and notices the same thing Keith did. “Looks like Hunk is awake.” He says, moving back to his camera to pack it up.

Keith waits for Lance to finish before walking back to the house together. They kick their shoes off once they’re inside and walk to the kitchen where Hunk is making omelettes.

“It smells great, Hunk.” Keith says, going into the cupboard to find the plates and set the table for the three of them.

Lance walks straight to Hunk, watching him form the omelette in the pan. He watches with wide eyes, amazed at his skill.

“Holy crap, Hunk! How do you do that?”

“What do you mean how do I do that? Have you never made an omelette before?” Hunk says, finishing the one in the pan and putting it on a nearby plate.

“I only know how to make scrambled eggs. I usually just put whatever I would want in an omelette and make a scramble.”

Hunk takes a deep breath, four seconds in, four seconds out. “Lance, you infuriate the culinary student part of me, but the college student part understands, and is here to teach. Come on.” 

He positions himself so Lance can watch Hunk properly before starting the process of making another omelette. Keith sets the table with all the plates and glasses of water for the three of them.

He sits at the table and waits for Lance and Hunk to finish with breakfast. He takes out his phone and texts Allura, she tends to wake up early, and it’s almost eight in the morning, so he knows she’ll be awake to reply to him.

 

Keith- ‘good morning’

Allura- ‘ur up early’

Keith- ‘yeah i woke up and watched the sunrise over the lake’

Allura- ‘alone?”

 

Keith rolls his eyes, he knows Allura is fishing for information and more details about how him and Lance are progressing. He decides to indulge her, she’s the more rational one out of the two of them, she’ll be able to tell him if he’s imagining Lance flirting or if he’s actually doing it.

 

Keith- ‘planned on it but lance woke up to take pictures of it’

Allura- ‘so u watched the sun rise over the lake… with lance… after you had a night of sleeping in the same bed… and before that seeing your first shooting star ever with him… on a spontaneous road trip… where u ran away w him…. okay’

Keith- ‘if u have smth to say about it just say it miss passive aggressive’

Allura- ‘im just saying this is all really cheesy and if u dont fall in love w him by the end of this trip wyd’

Keith- ‘im gonna be honest i think im halfway there already’

Keith- ‘but it’s nothing concrete hes just a cute boy it might be the situation thats making me feel like this and im reading too much into everything he does. I dont even know if he likes me back at all he might just be a super friendly person like u should see how he is w Hunk’

Allura- ‘i dont think ur looking into anything and i think he likes u back. Anyway u should continue to be ur irrational impulsive self because clearly lance is liking that alot’

Keith- ‘i hope so. I really like this guy its weird. Hes sweet and caring and hes funny if a lil loud sometimes but its endearing when its him, not annoying. And hes self sacrificing. Well not really the last one but today he gave me his jacket while we were outside so i wouldnt be cold even tho he would be’

Allura- ‘and ur still having doubts if he likes you back or not??? Keith open ur EYES’

Keith- ‘im gay and i dont have eyes’

Allura- ‘when im on spring break in a few weeks im gonna fly home and kick ur ass myself for being an IDIOT’

 

Keith laughs at his phone, he always knows how to mess with Allura. As he’s texting Lance walks over with the plate of omelettes and scrapes one onto Keith’s plate in front of him. Keith looks up and thanks him before texting Allura a quick goodbye and puts his phone down so he can start cutting up the omelette in front of him, cooling it off.

 

“Were you texting, Shiro?” Hunk asks, sitting down next to them. 

“No, Allura. Shiro said he’d call me during his lunch break today.” Keith says, eating the first bite of the omelette. “Damn, this is really good, Hunk.”

“Thank you, I made the batter but Lance cooked that one, he did a good job right?” Hunk says, proud of Lance’s first omelette.

Keith looks at Lance and nods, “it looks and tastes amazing, man.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Lance grins back before taking a bite of his own omelette.

The three of them eat in a comfortable silence, all of them very hungry and knowing they’re going to have a day packed with adventure, so they should eat up now.

Once they’re finished with their food Keith takes their dishes and washes them himself, not letting Hunk or Lance help him, not when they made him breakfast.

“So, I think we should take Lance to lake Michigan today.” Keith says, wanting him to see a real great lake while they’re on this trip.

“That’s a good idea, Sleeping Bear Dunes is only like a half an hour away, we can stop at the lake and then show Lance the sand dunes.” Hunk says.

Lance grins, “That sounds awesome. I’ve never seen sand dunes before.”

“It’ll be fun.” Keith finishes rinsing the soap off the last dish and puts it on the drying rack. “Pack up your camera you’ll be able to get some really good pictures out there.”

Lance nods, “yeah, for sure I will.”

Keith dries his hands off and steps away from the sink, “let’s get dressed and we can leave now, yeah?”

The two other boys nod and stand up, walking upstairs to get out of their pajamas and put on real clothes. Keith and Lance go to their shared bedroom and put their bags on the bed, pulling out the clothes they want to wear today.

They dress warm, knowing the weather will not be kind to them today, clear skies mean there’s no cloud coverage to help warm up the area they’re in. The sun may be shining but the weather does not reflect that.

Keith puts on his red jacket and wraps a scarf around his neck before pulling on his extra winter coat, adding a hat to cover his ears and gloves to keep his hands warm. Lance puts on a sweatshirt over his regular shirt and adds a scarf that can go up to cover his nose and mouth. He zips up his green jacket over it all and adds his own hat and gloves to keep himself warm.

“I’m gonna bring the blankets I brought to the car, we might need them while we’re there.” Lance says as he packs up his camera bag.

“Sounds like a good idea.” Keith says.

Once they’re both prepared with everything they’re going to take they walk downstairs to see Hunk packed them a bag of snacks to take. 

“I don’t know how long we’re going to be, so I packed us some stuff to eat in case we get hungry.”

“Good thinking man!” Lance walks over and looks inside the bag before letting Hunk zip it up and take it to the door with them.

Once their shoes are on they all brace themselves for the cold and open the door. Hunk closes and locks it behind them and they all pile in the car, turning the heat up all the way.

“I put the directions in my phone, it’s not that far away to the lake, and remember Lance, the water is cold.” Keith teases.

Lance rolls his eyes in the back seat. “I know that… now.” 

Hunk laughs and drives onto the road, making their way out of the area and back onto the highway.

“So is there like a beach on the lake? Or is it just grass then water?”

“There’s a beach. The sand dunes connect to the lake, so it’s sand that goes into the water. In the summertime it’s really popular for families to come up here and spend a week to swim in the lake and play on the beach.” Hunk says.

“So it’s Michigan’s version of the ocean.”

“Basically. Sometimes you want to go to a beach that doesn’t involve flying across the country, plus the lakes are freshwater, so if you swallow some you don’t feel like you’re dying of salt poisoning.”

“Salt poisoning isn’t a thing.” Lance says, confused.

“I go to culinary school, trust me, salt poisoning is a thing.”

“Sounds like a story, please elaborate.” Keith sits up, intrigued.

“Prepare yourself, it is a story. In most of my classes we do taste tests of other students work, you know, to give comments and constructive criticism and such, well in one of them there’s this one student who thought he was amazing at being a chef, which I’ll admit he is a pretty good cook, but like, so is the rest of the class, because we’re all in culinary school.”

Lance nods, “if your class is half as good as you are they’re a million times better than the rest of us.”

“Thank you, Lance. Well, we each had to make a specific recipe, each of us had a different pasta dish, he had traditional spaghetti, a pretty basic thing right?”

“Yeah, even I know how to make spaghetti, even if it’s with store bought sauce and the noodles never really tastes right, it’s still spaghetti.” Lance says

“Do you salt the water before you add your pasta?” Hunk asks.

“No, why would I do that?”

Hunk takes a deep breath, “Lance, your lack of cooking knowledge infuriates me, any time you boil pasta you’re supposed to salt the water, for every sixteen cups of water is a tablespoon of regular table salt, this will save your pasta, but if you’re making a boxed mac and cheese don’t salt the water, the cheese has enough salt, adding more will just make it taste too salty.”

“I… Did not know any of that, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Anyway this does tie into the story, he was making spaghetti and was salting his pasta water, only he added way too much salt to his water, and as he was cooking the pasta he added more salt!”

“Oh dear.” Keith says.

“Yeah, and as he was making the sauce he added three times the amount of salt that was on the recipe and extra garlic, which in his defense extra garlic is almost always a good call, but in this case we were using garlic powder which is-”

“Salty.” Keith says, trying not to laugh.

“Yeah!” Hunk nearly shouts. “It’s fucking salty! Of course I was his taste tester and when I took one bite I felt like i ate an entire bag of sunflower seeds the tip of my tongue was numb, and I couldn’t taste any of the other ingredients. He got so offended when I told him it was salty that he made a huge scene and the professor was called over and tasted it for themself only to spit it out because it was awful and the kid got a terrible grade because he messed with the recipe. I couldn’t feel my mouth for the rest of the day.”

“That sounds awful.” Keith says, not bothering to hold in his laughter anymore.

Lance lets out his laugh as well, “yeah, but hell if that’s not a funny story. R.I.P. your taste buds.”

“It was a terrible experience but it did make me the hero of the class because I finally got that asshole to get off his high horse and realize he’s not better than the rest of us, and if our teacher gives us a recipe we should follow it with minor tweaks, not add another fucking pound of salt.”

“Your classes sound like an adventure.” Lance says.

“They are, but they’re fun and I’m grateful for that, even if it does come with some entitled people who think they’re better than the rest of us. Small price to pay to do what I love.”

Hunk drives down a winding road getting closer to the lake. He finds a nearby parking lot that’s completely empty, because no one in their right mind drives up to lake Michigan in the middle of March.

“The lake isn’t far down, let’s go.” Hunk says, getting out of the car, Keith and Lance following. 

They make their way down the sandy beach and walk to the lake, already able to see it. Lance takes the lead, excited to see what the lake looks like up close.

Lance stops at the edge of the lake right before the waves crash over, barely missing his boots. He looks out with an awestruck look on his face, breathless at the sight.

Hunk and Keith walk up and stand next to him, letting Lance take in the view before them.

“This is a lake?” Lance asks quietly, “it looks like an ocean. I can’t see the other side, it’s like there’s no end to the water.”

Keith nods, “yeah, it’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“It’s like home.” He says softly, not taking his eyes off the body of water.

Hunk and Keith stay quiet, letting Lance have his moment. Keith knows he must be missing Florida, going to college out of state is hard, especially when your home is across the country.

Lance stares out into the water for a minute before he shakes his head to clear it, turning to give a weak grin at the other two boys. “Sorry.” He clears his throat. “Come on, let’s walk around the beach, I want to get some more pictures.” He holds up his camera.

Keith presses his shoulder to Lance’s side for a brief moment, reassuringly. They begin to walk across the lake. They don’t get so close that the water splashes across their feet, but they sand is damp under them, getting stuck on the bottom of their boots.

Lance goes on ahead of them, stopping to take pictures of anything he finds particularly interesting. His boots in the sand, the horizon on the lake, shells he finds peeking out of the sand, anything to document this experience.

Keith and Hunk hang back, letting Lance do his thing, he’s in a photo taking zone, they don’t want to disturb him.

As they’re walking Shiro calls Keith’s phone. “Hey, Takashi.”

“Hi, Keith, what are doing?”

“We’re walking around Lake Michigan right now. Lance is taking pictures and we’re gonna go to the sand dunes later on.”

“Sounds fun. You having a good time?”

“Yeah, it’s been fun. I saw the sun rise this morning it was really pretty.”

“That’s good, you’ve been updating mom and dad?”

“Yeah, they stopped replying, but I don’t care. They don’t want to talk to me, whatever.”

“It’s fine, they can’t be mad at you for not telling them where you are, because you kept the updated.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Hey, do you remember Matt’s little sister, Katie? You went to high school with her but she transferred to that school for the arts.”

“Oh yeah, Pidge! She was a sophomore when I was a senior right? Now she’s a junior in whatever school she’s at.”

“Yeah, she’s at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Traverse City, it’s not that far from where you are if you want to visit her.”

Keith smiles, “that sounds like fun actually. I’m gonna text her, maybe we’ll see her tonight. It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, she’d like some visitors, and you can meet all her friends.”

“I’ll tell Lance and Hunk and we’ll bring it up with her. It’ll be nice, thanks for the idea.”

“Alright, my break is over I have to get back to work now. I love you, keep me updated on what you’re doing.”

“Will do, love you too, Takashi, I’ll see you soon.” 

He hangs up and turns to Hunk, “hey, you remember Pidge?”

“Yeah I remember her, why?”

“She goes to Interlochen Center for the Arts, it’s in Traverse City, it’s not that far from here, I can call her and see if she wants to hang out later today.”

“That would be awesome! I miss her she was fun to hang out with in high school.”

“I’ll tell Lance and I’ll call her when we’re in the car today.”

“Sounds good.” 

They make it pretty far down the beach when Lance stops and turns around, walking back to Keith and Hunk

“Hey, we can turn back now.” Lance says, “I got a lot of pictures of the beach and the water, we can move on.”

“Let’s walk back to the car, we can drive to the sand dunes and you can take some more pictures there if you want.” Keith suggests. 

Lance nods, “yeah, sounds good.” He says as they start walking back to where they parked the car. “What time is it?”

“About ten thirty. We spent a few hours here.”

Lance hums, “barely felt like ten minutes.”

“Yeah, I know. So we have a friend, Katie Holt, who goes to Interlochen Center for the Arts in Traverse City which isn’t that far from here, and we were thinking about calling her and seeing if she wants to hang out with us later on today.”

Lance grins, “Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

“She’s pretty cool. She’s my brother’s boyfriend’s, Matt, little sister, we call her Pidge.” Keith says.

“Sweet, call her when we get in the car and maybe we can go later on today.”

Keith nods and they make their way back to the car. They walked pretty far so it takes a while before they find the parking lot where Hunk’s car is, still the only one in the lot. They walk over and all pile back into the car.

Hunk starts the car up and begins the drive to the dunes, there’s a designated road to drive on leading to a place to park so they can get out and experience the dunes first hand, only as Hunk is driving he debates continuing on the road, he doesn’t really think it through, telling himself to be impulsive.

“Hey, what do you guys say of going off road and driving on the dunes themselves?” Hunk asks Lance and Keith.

“Uh, I think driving on the sand is a really fucking bad idea, Hunk.” Lance says, sitting up in his seat.

“Yolo!” Hunk exclaims, turning the wheel to go off road and drive over the dunes.

“Hunk, did you just say yolo in the lord's year of not 2011?” Keith yells at him.

“Come on, driving on the sand will be fun!” Hunk says, getting further away from the road as he drives deeper into the dunes.

“This is very un-Hunk of you, man.” Keith says, already knowing it’s going to end terrible.

“This whole trip was on an impulse decision! We have to be spontaneous and do stuff like this!” Hunk says, not noticing the car slowing down as he drives until it stops completely, stuck in the sand.

They’re all quiet for a moment, processing what happened. Hunk presses on the gas, they hear the wheels turning but the car not moving, sand being thrown around by the wheels movements.

“We’re stuck.” Lance states the obvious.

“Oh no.” Hunk says, he quickly unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out of the car, seeing his car stuck in the sand, the wheels having sunk down a bit, to the point that driving the car will not be enough to take it out.

“Oh no!” Hunk shouts, realizing how badly he messed up. “I fucked up, I fucked up so bad!”

Keith quickly gets out of the car and runs over to Hunk, seeing the extent of the situation. Lance follows suit, standing next to the two other boys. Hunk starts freaking out, shouting mostly at himself for being an idiot and getting themselves into this situation to begin with.

“Hey, come on Hunk, calm down.” Lance says, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We didn’t get that far off the road, I can see it from here, with the three of us pushing I’m sure we can get it back on the road no problem.”

Hunk takes a few deep breaths, looking at Lance. “You sure?”

“Yeah, man. Worst comes to worse we call for help, or flag someone down.”

“Okay… I suppose we can try and push it out of the sand, it’s not too far away.” Hunk says, more calm than before but still freaked out that he put them in this situation.

Keith nods, “yeah, let's start pushing.” 

They all move around the car and place their hands on it, they count to three before pushing as hard as they can. They manage to push it a bit, but barely anything even with the three boys using all their strength.

“It’s not working!” Hunk yells, frustrated with himself.

“Do you boys need help?” An unfamiliar voice says from in front of the car.

Lance peaks his head up and grins, “yes, yes we do need help. Our car is stuck in the sand.”

The man nods, “I can see that. I can tow you with my truck if you guys need that.” He nods back over to the road where they see a pickup truck. “I have rope I usually connect for a boat but I can tie it to your car.”

“That would be amazing! Thank you so much. My name is Lance, that’s Keith and this is Hunk.” Lance introduces them all, grateful that a passerby stopped for them.

“Names Kolivan. Give me one moment I’ll drive my truck over here.”

“You sure it won’t get stuck?” Hunk asks, not wanting another car stuck in the sand making the problem even worse.

“No, I have specific tires on my truck that let me drive on sand, looks like you do not. If you wanted to go off roading like that you really should have gotten them.”

“It was an impulse decision.”

“A stupid one.” Keith says bluntly.

“I was being spontaneous!”

“Keith is right, it was a stupid decision.” Kolivan says before turning around and walking back to his truck.

Lance snorts, “Hunk got roasted by a stranger.”

“I don’t care, this stranger is helping us and that’s all that matters to me.” Hunk says watching Kolivan back the truck up so it’s in front of Hunk’s car and they can tow it out.

“Two of you will push and one will steer while I drive my truck to get it out of the sand.” Kolivan tells them, tying the back of the car to the loop where his boat would normally connect to his truck.

“Lance you steer, me and Hunk will push.” Keith says, waiting for Kolivan to tie the car up securely before getting in position with Hunk.

Lance gets inside the car and lowers the window down so he can hear their directions. He places his hands on the steering wheel and hears Kolivan start his truck up. They start slow, Hunk and Keith pushing the car up as much as they can while Kolivan slowly makes his way back to the road. 

Lance turns the wheel as Kolivan drives, making it easier to take it back to the road. Hunk and Keith stop pushing once the car isn’t stuck anymore and Kolivan drives it back to the road and parks.

He steps out of his truck, Lance doing the same. They untie the car from his truck and put the rope in the bed, making sure nothing is wrong with the car. Keith and Hunk run up to the road and thank Kolivan profusely.

“Thank you so so much, you saved us.” Hunk says.

Kolivan nods at him, “it was no trouble, I saw you out there, I couldn’t not stop and help. You guys know how to get out of here safely?”

Keith nods, “yeah, we know where to go from here, and we’ll be staying on the designated road this time.”

“Good, I’ll be goin’ now. Stay safe boys.” He gets back in his truck and drives away.

The three of them pile back into the car, Lance in the driver's seat this time around. They all get situated, Keith bringing out a blanket for himself, having gotten cold while they were pushing the car up the sand.

Lance starts the car and begins to drive away from the dunes, having enough sand for one day, possibly the whole trip. 

After a few minutes of silence in the car, Lance speaks up. “Lowkey he was kinda hot.” Hunk snorts in the back seat and Keith rolls his eyes, thinking Lance is ridiculous. “I’m just saying he looked like a midwestern country man, like he owned a farm. I’d smash.”

“Lance!” Keith gets out between laughs. “Oh my god!”

“He was helpful and honestly, a daddy.” Lance defends himself.

“You’re ridiculous, but he did save us like some kind of knight in plaid armor, so I’ll agree with you for now.” Hunk says.

Keith rolls his eyes, he’s smiling so Lance knows he’s not serious about the teasing, and turns to look out the window, watching the scenery pass by. It’s barely even eleven am and they’ve had a hell of a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance’s feelings on Kolivan are my feelings on Kolivan too tbh. Next chapter will be up tomorrow!!  
> Comment and Kudos please its how i measure my self worth <3  
> You can contact me at [my voltron tumblr Shiroskitten](http://shiroskitten.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiking and Shenanigans with Pidge and Friends followed by another late night talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you cant tell by now i love one direction a lot haa,,

A few minutes pass as they drive on the road, the scenic view relaxing the three of them after the sand dune fiasco. Keith watches the trees go by through the passenger seat window before he turns and pulls out his phone.

“I’m going to call Pidge now, see if she’s up for hanging out later on.” Keith says, dialing her number.

It rings a few times before she picks up. “Keith! What’s up?”

“Hey Pidge. I’m up north in Beulah right now with Hunk and my friend from college, Lance. We’re not that far from Interlochen and we were wondering if you wanted to hang out for a bit later on today.”

“Yeah! That sounds fun, I can show you guys around campus and stuff and I can introduce you to some of my friends, they’re pretty awesome, you’ll like them. I have a few things to do involving schoolwork but I’m free later on today.”

“Sounds good, text me when you’re ready to hang out, we have a few more places to explore around here before we’re ready to leave anyway.”

“Sweet, I’ll text you guys when I’m done.”

Keith says his goodbyes to her and hangs up the phone. “She has some things to do but will text us when she’s done and we can drive over there.”

“Sounds good, Traverse City isn’t that far away from here, or from the house, we’ll be able to get there and hang out for a while before having to go back to sleep.” Hunk says. 

Lance nods, “sweet, it’ll be fun to meet new people up there.”

As they’re driving along the path they see a cliff up ahead, a small road leading to a patch where cars have previously been parked and walking paths cleared into the trees ahead.

“Hey, you guys up for a quick hike?” Hunk asks. “There’s a path up ahead, right there. It’ll be good for pictures, and just fun to do. Spontaneous but not dangerous.”

Keith nods, “sounds like fun.”

“Yeah, I’ll park and we can walk up the cliff.” Lance says, pulling over into the patch meant for cars to safely park.

Keith steps out of the car and bundles himself up in a blanket. If they’re going to hike he refuses to be cold. Hunk does the same, wrapping it around his shoulders like a shawl while Lance folds his like a scarf around his neck.

Hunk leads the way up the path, going ahead of the two of them, wanting to see more of the scenery. Lance and Keith hang back with each other, standing close. Keith tells himself it’s because they’re feeding off each others body heat.

“Sorry I got distant earlier.” Lance says. “It’s a little hard being around a beach and water like that without missing home.”

Keith nods, “You don’t have to apologize, I understand. It must be hard going to school so far away from your home.”

“It is, but it’s worth it. I’m here to get an education, and I’m getting a really good one with this school, but at the same time I’m missing a lot of milestones back home, my cousins getting older, my little brother joining his school’s soccer team, and the school’s play. It’s hard missing that stuff.”

Keith nods, he doesn’t really feel the same way, since his family life is very different, but he can imagine how it feels, and it must be awful.

“It’s fine though, I call them every day and I got to see them over winter break and that was really nice, three weeks of just us.” Lance looks up at the trees.

Keith looks over at Lance’s face, he doesn’t comment on the small amount of tears pooling at the bottom of his eyes.

“I understand, not with family but with Allura, my best friend. She goes to college in New York state. It’s hard being away from her, but we talk every day, more often than I talk to my own parents, when she came back home for winter break it was great, we did a lot of fun things and I basically spent my entire break at her house. Having to spend spring break without her is really hard.”

“Yeah, that’s it. Are you and Allura childhood friends?”

Keith shakes his head, “no actually, we’re not. We met when we got in high school.”

“Really? You talk about her as if you’ve known her forever.” Lance says, genuinely surprised.

“It seems like that sometimes. I moved from one area of Michigan to the other my freshman year of high school. She did the same, we were both new kids at the same time, moving to new parts where we knew nobody.”

“So you bonded over that?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I moved from downriver, and she moved from England to live with her uncle Coran. We met during bandcamp, she joined colorguard and I played the baritone. We didn’t like each other that much at the start, I thought she was a little prissy and she thought I was cold.”

“How could she think that? You’re not cold at all.”

“I was during high school, especially when I first got there. I was closed off from everyone, didn’t want to be in a new place, especially after my older brother moved out, it sucked. After marching season was over and our symphonic band went to festival we were paired up for stage prep and we had to spend a bit of time together to quickly put together and take off the chairs from the stage and some other things. We bonded over being new students and similar interests, she doesn’t look like it but she went through an emo phase when she was in middle school, at the same time she discovered One Direction though.”

Lance laughs, “your best friend used to like One Direction?”

“No no, she still loves One Direction. It’s wild when her music is on shuffle and we go from Falling in Reverse to Harry Styles.”

“I mean, not gonna lie, One Direction has some bangers. Like, Midnight Memories, that whole album is amazing.”

“Lance, do you like One Direction?”

“I have all their albums on my phone and cried when Zayn Malik left if that’s what you’re asking.”

Keith grins, laughing lightly. “You and Allura would get along great, she found out when we were at school and dragged me to an empty hallway and had a minor breakdown about it.”

“Honestly that’s what happened to me, I had to call my sister I was distraught.”

“I never pegged you for the type of person to listen to One Direction.” Keith tells him, he really didn’t.

“When I was younger I would just listen to whatever my sister listened to, and she was in love with Niall so I listened to them with her, and I actually liked that kind of music.”

“How old are your siblings?”

“I have an older brother, Marco. He’s eight years older than me, I’m nineteen, turning twenty pretty soon, he’s twenty seven. My older sister, Veronica, is only four years older than me, she’s twenty three, and my younger brother, Luis, just turned sixteen a few months back.”

“You’re all four years apart.” Keith comments.

“Yeah, and we were all accidents. How old is Shiro?”

“He’s ten years older than me, twenty eight, I’m eighteen. We have different dads. I also have a younger sister, she’s in middle school, seventh grade. I’m closer with Takashi than I am with her, mostly because she’s the favorite child, and a brat, so I’m left behind.”

“That really sucks. At least you have your older brother to help you, and Allura.” Lance says.

Keith nods, “yeah, it’s nice knowing I have them to always help. I also have Hunk, and   you.” He looks up at Lance.

Lance gives him a bright grin in return, one that rivals the sun. Keith blushes and trips over his own feet, falling forward, putting his hands out to break his fall.

“Keith are you okay?” Lance says, his smile falling from his face, forming a look of worry.

Keith sticks his leg straight up in the air. “I’m okay. I just tripped.”

Lance looks around at the path. There’s a few leaves left over from autumn, some snow sprinkled around in clumps, but for the most part the path is clear.

“Over what?” Lance extends his arm for Keith to grab onto

“My own feet I guess.” Keith says, taking Lance’s hand and lifting himself up.

He brushes off his clothes and repositions the blanket on his shoulders, looking away from Lance so he doesn’t see the blush still staining his cheeks. He really lost his footing because a cute boy smiled at him.

‘“You’re okay, though, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Let’s keep walking or we’ll lose sight of Hunk.” Keith says, starting his way back up the hill again.

They pick up the pace a bit, getting a better sight of Hunk as he hikes up the hill. Eventually they stop at a clear spot at the top of the cliff, the trees all behind them and a few large boulders surrounding the area.

Keith walks over to Hunk where he’s staring at the edge of the cliff, looking out into the distance. They’re not that high up, Michigan doesn’t have any mountains, only large hills. The cliff is twenty five, maybe thirty, feet in the air.

“It’s beautiful, you can see the dunes from up here.” Hunk says.

“Can you see where you got the car stuck?” Keith jokes.

Hunk playfully bumps his hip with Keith’s rolling his eyes. They hear Lance in the background, the clicker of his camera giving away his location. They stay quiet for a bit, appreciating the breathtaking view in front of them.

“Hey guys.” Lance calls from the other end of the cliff. The two boys look over, seeing him stand very close to the edge. “What if I just jumped off?”

“You’d die. Back away from the edge, Lance.” Hunk says.

Lance looks down then back at the two boys before jumping backwards. Hunk and Keith both shout and run over, freaking out, before they see Lance standing on a small ledge, laughing his ass off at their reactions.

“You’re a dick!” Keith shouts, his hand on his chest.

Lance manages to get a hold of is laugher, “sorry, sorry. I couldn’t help myself. The opportunity was right there, I couldn’t not take it.” He says between giggles.

“I hate you. You gave me a near heart attack.” Keith yells at him, stepping back so Lance can climb back up.

“It was pretty funny though, your faces when I jumped off were priceless.” Lance laughs, dusting himself off.

Keith takes the blanket off from around him and bunches it in his hands. Having hiked all the way up here and run over to Lance making him too warm.

“After that I don’t want to be around anymore cliffs, not with Lance about to jump off of them.” Hunk says.

Lance nods, “I’m ready to turn back too, but before we go we should get a group picture. I’ll set my camera on a timer and put it on this on one of the rocks.”

“That’s a cute idea, we should do it.” Hunk smiles. “Over there is a good spot to do it.” He says, pointing to a boulder.

“That’s a great idea, I’ll set up the camera you two go stand over there.” Lance walks over to the boulder.

He sets the camera on a ten second timer and positions it in the right spot, instructing Keith and Hunk into good positions. Hunk still has the blanket wrapped around him while Keith is holding his own up to his chest, his scarf covering his mouth.

Lance presses start on the timer and rushes over, putting himself between Hunk and Keith, one hand resting on Keith’s upper back while the other drops to his side. Keith leans into the touch and all three of the smile for the camera, even though Hunk’s mouth is the only one visible, as Keith’s scarf is covering his mouth, while Lance’s blanket made scarf is covering his.

Lance walks back to his camera and checks out the pictures. 

He smiles fondly at it and shows the others, “we look good. Let’s walk back now, I’m tired of being out in the cold.”

The other two boys agree and they begin their descent down the cliff, it’s not that high up, but they spent a few hours on the hike, and a while at the top looking at the view and Lance taking pictures.

They’ve universally agreed to eat some of the snacks Hunk brought with them once they’re back in the car, it almost being one in the afternoon they’ve built up quite the appetite.

They’ve walked about halfway down the path back to the car when Keith stumbles over a branch in the path. He’s about to fall when Lance acts quick and grabs his arm, pulling him into his chest, the other hand around his waist.

Keith flushes, his face in Lance’s neck. “Thanks.” He says quietly, still processing what happened.

“You just can’t walk today. That’s the second time you’ve tripped.” Lance says, pulling back.

Keith nods and turns back to the path, “just clumsy I guess.”

“You should be more careful.” Lance moves his hand from around Keith’s waist to the small of his back, keeping it there for the rest of the hike down.

While Lance is looking away Hunk gives a knowing grin and two thumbs up. Keith blushes and sticks his tongue out at him for a brief moment, before looking back in front of him, trying to fight the blush from his cheeks.

Once they’re at the car Lance takes his hand off of Keith and climbs into the backseat of the car. Keith gets in the front and Hunk takes the driver’s side. He turns on the car and puts the heat on, they have enough gas and battery power for them to stay inside with the heat on for a while without risk of the car shutting off.

Hunk picks up the bag of snacks and goes through it, pulling out a few sandwiches for them. He passes them around along with mini bags of cheez-its and water bottles. 

“They’re peanut butter and jelly, picnic food.” Hunk says, unwrapping his sandwich.

“You made these before we left? When did you have the time?” Lance asks before taking a bite out of his own sandwich.

“I only had to make the sandwiches, it wasn’t that hard to make. I made them while you two were changing.”

Keith sits back in his seat and closes his eyes, eating his sandwich. He’s had a lot of fun on this trip already, and is glad he made the decision to go. As he’s eating his phone goes off with a text from Pidge.

 

Pidge- ‘hey just finished w all my stuff if u guys wanted to hang out now!’

 

“Guys, Pidge is ready if we wanted to go over to Interlochen now.” Keith says, wiping off one hand to reply to her.

“Sweet, tell her it’ll be about an hour to get to her with traffic and such.” Hunk says, cracking open his water bottle and taking a sip.

 

Keith- ‘we’ll be there in an hour or so, and we’ll text u once we’re parked there and we can meet up.’

Pidge- ‘sounds good!!!’

 

“I said I’ll text her when we get there and we’ll meet up in a spot to hang out.” Keith says, picking his sandwich back up.

“We’ll leave when we’re done eating.” Hunk says, his mouth full of cheez-its.

“Sounds good to me.”

They make a bit of small talk as they eat, mostly quiet as they stuff their faces as quick as they can. Breakfast seems like it was days ago with the amount of adventure they’ve had, even though it was only that morning.

Eventually they finish and pack up their garbage back into the bag Hunk brought to be thrown away when they get to Pidge’s school. Hunk gets into a better position to drive and buckles his seatbelt. 

Keith plugs his phone in and pulls up directions to Pidge’s school. It’s about a forty minute drive, they should be there around two in the afternoon. 

Hunk begins the drive and Keith starts a conversation about Pidge, explaining how she looks and how they know her to Lance, so he’s not completely clueless when they get there.

“I met her when she was a freshmen, we were juniors. I knew of her because Matt would talk about her sometimes, but I didn’t officially meet her or become friends until she was in high school with me and Hunk. Her brother was a computer science major, and he’s beyond smart, and so is she, she’s very tech savvy.”

“So you guys went to the same high school and your brothers are dating?”

“Yeah, our brothers met when they were in college, same age difference as me and Pidge, they were living together before they started dating. My family had met Matt multiple times, but never his family until I met Pidge in high school.”

“Did you have a protective older brother instinct with her?”

“I did at first until I saw her deck a kid in the nose because they insulted her for wearing baggy clothes and not dressing super girly. I realized she could handle herself and we became friends after that. I haven’t been able to talk to her much this year, with me being busy with my first year of college, and her being busy with her first year of this new school.”

“Sounds awesome. You said she’s good with tech stuff, why is she at a school for the arts?”

“it was actually surprising to all of us when she said she wanted to go to Interlochen, because it’s a school for the arts. We all thought she would follow in Matt’s footsteps and major in computers, she’s an amazing creative writer though, everyone was so proud when she announced not only she got in, but on a scholarship as well.” 

“That’s amazing, creative and smart?”

“Yeah, she’s really everything. She still codes though, and hacks a lot of websites when she’s bored.”

“I remember when we were in high school she would have people pay her to design websites for them, she never had like a traditional job. I had to work at Krogers while I was in high school.” Hunk says, fondly.

“I wonder if she still does that at Interlochen.” Lance thinks out loud.

“Probably, artsy kids aren’t always smart with that kind of stuff.” Keith says.

“That’s true, she prolly makes bank coding tumblr themes for emo kids poetry blogs.” Hunk says thoughtfully, “hey, didn’t she code your emo poetry blog theme, Keith?”

Lance whips his head around to look at Keith. “Emo poetry blog?”

Keith sinks back in his seat. “Shut up, I made it when I was like in seventh grade and I stopped using it for a while it’s not as pathetic emo as it seems.”

“I’m sure your poems are very good and not at all about wanting to die.” Hunk says.

“They are artistic renditions of my inner pain and struggle… and also wanting to die but those tapered off from middle school to now.”

Lance laughs a bit, “I’m sure they’re great, really.”

“They’re not. I’ve buried that blog deep deep down and I don’t want anyone to ever find it again. I changed the url and haven’t touched it for half a year.”

“Can I-”

“No.” Keith says harshly.

“Okay.” Lance says, not wanting to push him, and slightly scared by his tone.

“Don’t worry, they weren’t that good, and besides if he hasn’t touched them for a year it’s not his emo self now it was his emo self then.” Hunk says, waving his hand in the air.

Lance nods, “yeah I guess so, besides I’m sure we’re all embarrassed of our past selves, even from just a year ago.”

“Why, did you write emo poetry comparing yourself to a hippopotamus that has been provoked by the cruel reality that is life in the wild?” Keith asks.

“... No, but I did write a fifty five page powerpoint on the history of Petekey last year, so there’s that.”

Keith turns his head to make eye contact with him. “Petekey as in-”

“Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Mikey Way from My Chemical Romance, yes. I was in econ my freshman year of college and Pete tweeted out a happy birthday tweet to Mikey calling him sweet little dude and a young emo asked what that meant and I realized they don’t know about warped ‘05 so I made a history lesson instead of studying and passed the class only because my professor was crazy and the kid next to me let me cheat off of them.”

“Holy shit.” Keith laughs, “you seriously did that?”

“Yeah, it’s super embarrassing and it’s two weeks of my life I’ll never get back, but I worked really hard on it so.”

“That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. I love that so much, Lance. I really, really do.” Keith says, honestly.

“I’m glad my embarrassing past brings you joy.” Lance says with a smile.

“Man you two were both emos, just different kinds.” Hunk says.

“Sounds about right.” Keith says, “we had different ways of expressing being emo. Neither of which got us very far in life.”

“Speak for yourself, making that powerpoint is what got me learning how to work the application, and now I’m basically an expert on it. It’s fantastic.” Lance says.

Keith laughs lightly and looks back to the road, telling Hunk the final directions to Interlochen. They find their way onto the campus and follow signs to a parking structure where Hunk pulls in and parks.

Keith pulls out his phone and calls Pidge, she answers on the second ring.

“Keith, are you here?”

“Yeah, we’re in the east lot in the parking structure.”

“Stay right there, I’ll come to you. I have my friend, Shay, with me.” Pidge hangs up and a few minutes later she’s tapping on Keith’s window.

She steps back and let’s Keith get out of the car, giving him a hug when he’s able to. She hugs back tight, happy to see him again. Hunk and Lance step out of the car, everything they need in their own backpacks they’re carrying.

Pidge steps back and gives Hunk a hug as well before walking back to the friend she brought with her. 

“Guys this is my friend Shay, Shay this is Hunk, Keith, and their friend Lance.”

Lance waves, “hey, it’s nice to meet you two.” He says, feeling slightly awkward because he doesn’t know either of them.

Shay smiles and waves back, “hello, it’s nice to meet you three as well.”

“Let’s start walking, I want to get back inside the building, I’m cold.” Pidge says, shivering a bit.

Hunk, Lance, and Keith follow Shay and Pidge’s lead to whichever building they want to go to. As they walk Pidge and Shay point out specific areas, telling them about time they’ve spent at the school.

They walk inside and sit in a common area of couches and comfortable chairs, away from the doors. They all sit down and not long after they’ve gotten comfortable a few more of Pidge and Shay’s friends walk by.

Shay grins wide, “Rax!” She calls to a boy who looks similar to her, but obviously older. “Guys this is my brother, Rax. Rax these are Pidge’s friends from her old school, Hunk, Keith, and Lance.”

Rax smiles and sits down next to his sister, his friends following “hello. These are Rolo and Nyma. What brings you three up here, isn’t Pidge from around Detroit?”

“Road trip.” Keith tells them. “It’s our colleges spring break, so we thought we’d do a small impromptu road trip to Lake Michigan. Lance is from Florida, we wanted him to see a great lake before he goes home for the summer.”

Rolo nods, understanding them, wanting an out of state friend to have the Michigan experience. Nyma brings up another topic, everyone getting into the conversation easily. The kids at Interlochen being very easy to befriend. They talk about the adventures they’ve had at their new schools.

Keith and Lance talk about the furry that goes to U of M that claims to have astroprogected into the undertale universe, no one believing that guy is real until Keith brings up his instagram and showing everyone the crudely made tiger tail that he wears attached to the back of his pants every day.

Hunk tells stories about his own school, bringing up mishaps he and his classmates have found themselves in. Nyma and Rolo talk about topics from their old school as well as things they have gotten into here, specifically bringing up situations Pidge has gotten herself in.

“Pidge, Pidge tell them about your budgie!” Nyma giggles.

Pidge groans, “seriously Nyma?, you have to bring that up?”

“Yes! Come on it’s a hilarious story, you know it! Tell them they should hear about it!” She encourages, Shay, Rolo, and Rax all agreeing with her.

“What’s the budgie story?” Keith asks.

“Yeah, and what’s a budgie?” Hunk asks after.

Pidge takes a deep breath, “okay. So, a budgie is a type of bird, a type of parakeet to be exact, and I had one, his name was rover, he was a green and yellow parakeet. Now, with all pets you’re supposed to register them with the school in some way, I didn’t want to do that, so I kept him a secret.”

“You kept an illegal bird?” Keith smiles proudly.

“Yes, I did.” She grins back. “I had him all of this year until about a month ago. I went home for the weekend because I missed my family and didn’t have a lot of work left over to do, so I left Shay in charge of Rover. Only problem is budgies make a lot of noise, they’re usually quiet with little chirps here and there, but he’s very attached to me, and when I wasn’t there to be with him the whole weekend he got very loud and was chirping a lot more than usual. Shay didn’t know how to handle this because normally Rover is very well behaved and doesn’t talk much but he was being very loud and very obvious that there was a bird in our dorm.”

“It wasn’t my fault, I tried giving him millet to quiet down but he wouldn’t even go for it.” Shay says, still feeling bad about the situation.

Pidge puts a hand on Shay’s shoulder, “you’re right it’s not your fault, you can’t keep a bird quiet, they don’t listen. Well someone called a noise complaint and the RA’s came in, they didn’t even have to search the room, Rover was being so loud they found him instantly, realized he wasn’t a registered animal, and threw a fit about it.”

“Yikes,” Lance cringes. “What did they do about him?”

“They kept him in the administration building, one of the offices, and when my parents dropped me off later that day they took both me and them to where they kept him, I got lectured by several staff members and my parents took Rover home. Currently he’s living in my bedroom.”

“That’s good they didn’t do anything drastic, like set him free or something stupid like that, they let your parents take him back home.”

“Yeah but I feel bad he’s all alone, even if my parents are taking care of him, before he had me and I let him fly all around. Budgies are very social birds, when I go home for the summer I’m going to get him some friends.”

“Awwww.” Hunk coos, “how cute he’ll have a little pack of friends. What is a group of budgies called? Is it just a flock, like any other group of birds.”

“I think so.” Pidge says, thinking about it for a moment, “yeah, it’s just a flock, I’m sure.”

The eight of them talk for hours, no one noticing how late it has gotten until Hunk lets out a large yawn, stretching his arms out and rubbing his eyes.

Keith pulls out his phone, “damn, it’s almost ten already. We’ve been sitting around for hours.”

“We should get going, Hunk looks like he’s about to fall asleep on this couch,” Lance says, watching over his friend. “We have been up since sunrise. I say we leave now, and I drive, so Hunk doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel.”

Hunk and Keith nod their agreement, “sounds good to us.”

Keith stands up and Pidge grabs him, pulling him into a, slightly reluctant, long hug.

“It was so nice to see you again, I missed you a lot. When you come home for summer break we have to hang out more.” Keith says.

“Yeah, for sure. I missed you too, tell Shiro he’s awesome, Matt already says it from me but he deserves to get reminded more often.”

“Of course.” Keith promises and pulls back.

They all say their goodbyes to the rest of them before making their way back to the car. Hunk gets in the backseat, still yawning, while Lance gets in the driver’s side, adjusting the seat before pulling out of the parking structure and driving back to the lake house.

The drive is silent, other than that GPS talking every once in a while in the background. Hunk is near falling asleep in the backseat while Keith looks outside, up at the stars.

Lance parks the car in front of the house and Hunk walks out, mumbling goodnights to them, going straight to his room, not to be heard again until morning.

Lance and Keith take their time, unpacking the car of everything, they didn’t bring much so it’s not hard to clean up after themselves. They go up to their shared bedroom and get ready for bed, Keith had the bathroom first, finishing quickly while Lance takes his time to wash his face.

Once Lance is finished washing up he walks out to see Keith staring out the open bedroom window with a thoughtful expression.

“I used to dream about the stars when I was younger.” Keith says softly, not having to look away from the sky to know Lance is standing behind him. It seems wrong to speak at a normal volume this late at night, when it seems like everyone else for miles are asleep. “Fly away, out into space and never come back home. Like I’d finally be able to do what I wanted, explore other worlds. just be free.”

Lance walks up and shifts to lean on him, looking out the window as well. “I had similar thoughts about the ocean, swim as far as possible, just keep going until I find something worth bringing back home. Like space, but right here on earth.”

“We had very different childhoods, I wanted to leave and never come back, you wanted to leave and bring things back to make your family proud.” Keith says quietly. He wishes he had the same family life as Lance, from what he’s heard about them, it’s everything Keith ever wanted.

“Home is where the heart is. When I was younger, my heart was with my family, for the most part it still is.” Lance moves to face Keith, taking his hand gently, and putting it over Keith’s heart, looking into his eyes. “You can still fly off into space, but you can bring things back to whoever has your heart, like your older brother, Allura, Hunk and Pidge, even me and the other friends you met this year. Make whoever you love proud.”

Keith swallows, he wasn’t expecting this kind of response from Lance, he doesn’t know what he was expecting from him at all, he didn’t really plan for a deep conversation, then again, this whole trip was a spontaneous decision, less than a full day ago, Lance was barely anything more than an acquaintance to him, basically a stranger he thought was cute.

Keith puts his free arm around Lance’s neck and presses his chest against Lance’s, their hands trapped between them. Lance rests his hand on Keith’s lower back.

“Thank you.” Keith says quietly. “I’ll find you a space ocean that’s safe to swim in, so you can explore with me.” 

Lance smiles into Keith’s neck, “we’ll have adventures. You and me together.” He rubs the small of Keith’s back gently, neither wanting to let go of the hug.

They stay like that for a while, keeping close, warming each other up with their body heat. Eventually they separate from each other, stepping back from the embrace. Keith closes the window after reluctantly letting go of Lance’s hand.

They get under the covers together, both falling asleep almost immediately once their heads hit their pillows, dreaming of distant adventures in space together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance’s Petekey PowerPoint is real, and I made it myself. Please give it attention i worked v hard on it: [Here’s the link](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14xHeCyClKS4lAb05QYs7n6exi5KO0ovBeLwb9yNWYkk/edit?usp=sharing)  
> I'm v proud of myself for that final conversation. Last chapter will be up tomorrow!!  
> Comment and Kudos please its how i measure my self worth  
> You can contact me at [my voltron tumblr Shiroskitten](http://shiroskitten.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trip home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final Part! To all of you that have followed this fic/read it at all thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. This took me almost a full year to write because i didn't know where I was originally going with it but now that I have finished it and posted the final chapter I am extremely happy with the way it ended up being.  
> I really hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing it <3  
> And to the friend I wrote this for I hope I did ur trip justice  
> oh, and i will not apologize for how many Michigan/Midwestern specific things I put in here

Keith wakes up the next morning to Lance’s head on his chest. He smiles softly and closes his eyes, pressing his nose into Lance’s hair, nuzzling a bit, letting himself enjoy the cuddle just for a moment.

Lance hums and shifts his head up to look at Keith, “good morning.”

Keith blinks his eyes open again. “You’re awake?” He asks, surprised.

“Yeah, I’ve been up for like a half an hour, I didn’t want to get up. You’re warm and comfortable.” He smiles gently. “If you’re up now we can go downstairs if you want.”

“In a minute.” Keith rubs his eyes. “I’m not fully awake yet. What time is it?”

“It’s like ten am. Hunk came in a bit ago, to see if we were awake. He said to let you sleep and we can leave to go back to school whenever we want, we’re not really on a time limit today.”

Keith nods and yawns, spending a few minutes to wake himself up. Lance keeps himself on Keith’s chest, picking up his phone to scroll through twitter and instagram while Keith lays there, mentally preparing himself to get up.

Eventually Keith shifts a bit and Lance sits up, Keith following. He stretches out his arms and steps out of the bed.

“We should pack our bags up, if we’re going to leave it’s best to have all our stuff in one area.” Keith says, pulling out his clothes to change into for the day.

Lance nods his agreement and gets out of bed, stretching before starting to pack up his own things, putting away all his clothes and camera gear into his bag. He’s probably going to take his camera out later that day, but packing it away for now isn’t a bad idea.

They get dressed in their clothes for the day and make their way downstairs with their bags slung over their shoulders.

They find Hunk in the living room, sitting down on his phone, scrolling through it. He looks up at the two of them and grins.

“Good morning, sleepy heads.”

“Morning, Hunk.” Keith sits next to him. “What time did you wake up?”

“Around nine, I went by your room and Lance was partially awake but you were passed out. How late did you guys stay up?”

Keith and Lance share a look before he turns back to Hunk. “Not that long after you, guess not sleeping for the past couple days caught up to us.”

He doesn’t mention the late night talk to Hunk, it’s not important for him to know. Allura, however, will be getting a long text, in all caps, the second Keith is able to type it out.

Hunk sits up in his seat. “We can leave at any time, the traffic today is pretty much the same no matter what time of day the whole way back to Ann Arbor. I say we make breakfast, or well lunch, and then hit the road.”

“By we do you just mean yourself, because I know if we try and walk into the kitchen while you’re cooking you’ll kick us out.” Keith says.

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean.”

“Alright, go make whatever you want, we’ll eat anything you know that.” Lance picks up his camera bag. “I’m going to go outside, see if I can find some things to take pictures of, even though I’ve already taken more than enough.”

Keith sits back in his chair, not planning on moving. He’s had enough of the outdoors for a while, and Hunk has already banned him from the kitchen and he hasn't even started cooking.

He pulls out his phone and texts his parents, telling them that he’ll be leaving up north soon and going back to school. His parents don’t reply, and Keith isn’t expecting them to.

He also texts his brother, telling him the same thing. Shiro replies with a thumbs up and a message telling him to call him whenever he has a chance back at the dorm.

Lastly, Keith texts Allura, sending her the longest text, explaining everything that happened the day before, from the ride up to Lake Michigan, to getting stuck in the sand, then the hike where Lance opened up about his family admitted he likes One Direction and caught Keith before he fell, to meeting up with Pidge at Interlochen, to going back to the house and having a long talk with Lance that ended with a hug and falling asleep in the same bed for Keith to wake up in the morning with Lance, wide awake, laying on his chest.

A few minutes later Allura texts back.

 

Allura- ‘holy shit’

Allura- ‘Keith hes perfect’

Keith- ‘i think so too. Im starting to think he likes me back’

Allura- ‘STARTING???? Ur an idiot u know that?? A gay fool. OF COURSE HE LIKES YOU BACK!! Do you think he would have had that late night talk with you and helped u feel better. He said he wanted to go to a space ocean with u. YOU HUGGED HIM! You actually initiated a hug w him!!! you dont do that w anyone except ur brother or sometimes me and hunk. AND you woke up and he was already awake just cuddled on u. Keith he likes u back just kiss him already u gay FOOL’

Keith- ‘i have to wait for the right moment Allura i cant just walk up and press my face on his face that could end bad’

Allura- ‘hmmm could it tho?? like could it tho?’

Keith- ‘yes it could. I have to wait.’

Allura- ‘fine but i want u to know ur a main cause in my suffering. I think that u should do smth bout it before the end of this trip.’

Keith- ‘maybe. Idk. i dont wanna get rejected and have it be awkward esp around hunk’

Allura- ‘i dont think that he’ll reject u but i see y ur worried and i understand that BUT im still infuriated by ur choices and i will yell at u every day until u kiss him’

Keith- ‘i know u will and i appreciate the motivation’

Allura- ‘ur welcome. I have a butt load of homework due tonight at midnight/tomorrow morning and ive only done like half of it so i gotta go now. I’ll talk to u later today. ily’

Keith- ‘love u too’

 

Keith puts his phone away and smiles, Allura’s personality always cheers him up. He knew exactly what she was going to say about everything that happened, but hearing it from her still satisfies him, and he’s going to follow her advice and go for it, he’s just waiting for the right time.

He moves from the couch to an ottoman by a large window, wanting to feel the warmth of sunlight on his face without actually having to go outside. He looks out the window, watching a few birds fly by, all is quiet in the house except for the sounds of Hunk cooking in the kitchen.

Keith is lost in his train of thought, thinking about what he’s going to do when he gets back, obviously first on his list is to call Shiro and talk about his trip, but he’s also going to have to call his parents again, even though he definitely does not want to do that.

He also thinks about what he’s going to do about Lance, a big part of him is screaming to push down his feelings and shut Lance out, fearful that Lance will just leave him. Another, more rational part, sounding strangely like a calmer version of Allura, is telling him to take a step back, a deep breath, and go for it when the time is right.

The sound of a camera’s clicker breaks Keith out of his thoughts, forcefully pulling him back into reality. He whips his head around to see Lance kneeling next to him with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I really liked how the light was on your face. It looked really nice.”

Keith blinks and smiles softly, “s’Okay. You just startled me is all. I thought you were outside.”

“I ran out of things I liked enough to take a picture of it, but I came inside and found you.”

Keith blushes lightly and looks at his lap, “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Lance smiles back.

“Lunch is ready guys!” Hunk calls from the kitchen.

Lance clears his throat and stands up. “I guess we should go in there, to eat, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Keith nods, standing up himself. “Let’s see what he made today.”

They walk into the kitchen together to see three plates of spaghetti on the table with a glass of water next to each of them.

“Holy crap, you actually made spaghetti?” Lance says, taking a seat, making sure Keith sits next to him.

“Yes, I did. I need to have a clear conscience before I send you two back to the dorms, and that includes feeding Lance good spaghetti.” Hunk says, swirling some noodles onto his fork.

“Where did you get the stuff to make the sauce?”

“I told you guys I went to the grocery store before picking you guys up. I picked up a few things, and I was able to make this with them.”

Lance takes his first bite and nearly moans. “Shit, man this is amazing.” He praises  Hunk.

“Thank you.” Hunk says, chest puffing with pride. “Now eat up, we have a long car ride back home.”

The three of them eat up their meals fairly quickly, all of them hungry from skipping dinner in favor of sleep the night before. It’s not long until Keith and Lance are picking up the dishes and washing them while Hunk goes upstairs to pack up his clothing.

Lance stands close to Keith as he rinses the dishes Keith washes. He doesn’t need to be that close, there is plenty of room for him to step aside and comfortably rinse and dry the dishes but he stays firm in his position, his hip touching Keith’s on occasion.

Keith keeps his eyes firmly on the dishes, trying not to think about how warm Lance feels next to him, how badly he wants to lean over and wrap his arms around him in a tight embrace, the way he did last night, but this time less sad and more romantic.

He shakes the thoughts out of his head and rinses the soap off his hands, moving away from Lance to put away the now clean dishes.

Hunk comes downstairs and packs away whatever leftover food they have, so it doesn’t go bad in the house. The three of them do a sweep of the house and the backyard to make sure everything is clean and they haven’t forgotten anything.

Eventually they find themselves piled back into Hunk’s car, Lance in the backseat and Keith up front with directions and his phone plugged in to play songs, this time he downloaded a few at Lance and Hunk’s request.

“Alright, you guys ready to go back?” Hunk asks.

“Yeah, let’s hit the road.” Lance says, sitting back in his seat, getting comfortable with a blanket spread across his lap.

Hunk starts the car and pulls out of the driveway. Keith looks into the mirror on the side of the car, watching the house get smaller in the distance. He closes his eyes and says a thank you and goodbye in his mind. This past weekend was nothing he expected it to be, and everything he wanted.

The drive is lively, the three of them talking about random interests they have in common, sharing stories about family or school. Lance particularly likes when Hunk and Keith talk about shenanigans they got into while they were in band together.

“Keith, tell him about the hole in the instrument storage room, he’ll like that story.”

“Oh my god. This story is great, so our freshmen year it was really easy for students to get into the ceilings and walk on the catwalks up there, as long as you stayed on the designated areas it was fine, you could literally walk anywhere without any danger. Now, this was really common so teachers knew about it, and they hated it, they constantly tried to stop the students from getting into the ceilings but nothing worked because high schoolers are gremlins.”

“So there was a hole in the instrument room that let you guys go up there?” Lance asks.

“No, the hole comes in later. It was mostly upperclassmen that went up there, and one day, I remember it so clearly. It was December Seventh, Band-a-rama.”

“Band-a-rama?”

“It’s a concert where all the bands play, starting off with jazz band, moving to freshman, then sophomore, then upperclassmen band which I was in because I was actually good at my instrument, and ending with a big show from the marching band on stage.” Hunk explains.

Lance nods and Keith continues on with the story, “so anyway when I was a freshman our band was stuck in the equivalent of a storage room and I was not having it so I snuck out and went to talk to the upperclassmen because I was bored. Anyway our director came in and I ran into the instrument storage room, to the very back where the bigger instruments are kept and hid inside of an empty cubby.”

“Oh my god, were you caught?”

“I’ll get to that. While our director was getting the band ready our assistant director, Mrs. Johnson, dragged a few juniors in, I remember their names too, Dan and Josiah. She started lecturing them on how students aren’t allowed in the ceilings and that they need to stop doing it right away because she knows they are some of the students that do it.”

“Were they going in the ceilings, though?”

“Oh, hell yeah. They were terrible. Mrs. Johnson didn’t deserve any of the shit they or any other students put her though, she was a literal godsend.” Hunk tells him.

Keith nods, agreeing with him completely. “Mrs. Johnson was everything. I loved her so much, she was like a mom to me throughout high school. Anyway I’m sitting as scrunched up as I can be in this little cubby, trying so hard not to give myself away when, in the middle of her lecture about how these two, and all their friends, need to stop going into the ceilings, Dan and Josiah’s best friend, Shawn, falls out of the fucking ceiling onto the top of the cubbys and then falls off of there, taking out Dan on the way down.”

“No fucking way!” Lance laughs out loud. “There is no fucking way that happened!”

“Oh, it happened. Everyone in upperclassmen band heard the crash in the storage room.” Hunk laughs at the memory.

“Mrs. Johnson started screaming at Shawn and then our director ran in as did half the band, they all followed him inside to see the damage and I used that as an escape from the other door and ran down the hallway as fast as I could to my own band and told the story. It was fucking hilarious and also terrifying. Dan, Josiah, and Shawn got suspended for two weeks, people, for the most part, stopped going into the ceiling, and the hole in the ceiling remained there until my senior year, when it was finally patched up.”

“Holy shit! That’s literally fucking hilarious! I can’t believe you got out like that, unnoticed.” Lance says, amazed by how their high school was.

“Yeah, me too. I probably was noticed but they had bigger problems on their hands, clearly.”

“Your high school was much more eventful than mine. Sounds like a literal riot.” Lance sits back, in his seat, still laughing.

“It pretty much was, but it was also terrible. The friends I made were great but I never want to go back to that hell hole.”

“God, that’s a mood. Like we had some fun times, but overall, awful place, fuck that and more than half of the people we graduated with.”

“That’s a big mood right there. I hated most of my graduating class, that’s why I was really happy to get accepted to an out of state school, one that no one else got accepted to.” Lance says.

“A bunch of people from high school go to U of M but I don’t see most of them, and I plan on keeping it that way, because I never want to see them again. Hunk is lucky, not many people planned on going to culinary school.”

Hunk nods, “yup, it was an amazing feeling to walk into my first class of college and not know anyone, but that quickly grew into fear because I didn’t know anyone. It ended fine though, I made a lot of friends.”

“That’s because everyone likes you, Hunk.” Keith says.

Lance nods, agreeing with him, “yeah, I don’t know who wouldn’t. I’ve known you for like three days and I’d die for you, you’re awesome.”

“Thanks guys.” Hunk smiles, gratefully.

Lance picks up the conversation again, bringing up crazy things he’s done with his siblings or at his own high school, trying to match Keith and Hunk’s stories.

They’ve got about an hour left in the trip when Hunk’s stomach growls loudly, making the other two look in his direction.

Hunk shifts in the seat, “sorry. I’m hungry, we’ve been on the road for like three hours already.”

“I’m pretty hungry too, now that you mention it.” Lance says. “We should stop and get something.”

Keith nods, agreeing with them. “The next exit isn’t that far. I saw a sign that said there’s a Coney Island. Lance have you ever had a coney dog?”

“No, what’s that?”

“We’re going to Coney Island just so we can force Lance to try a coney dog.” Hunk turns his signal on and gets off the next exit.

“That doesn’t explain what it is though.” Lance says, confused.

“It’s basically an all beef hot dog topped with a meat chili with two stripes of mustard and chopped onions.” Keith explains.

“So, it’s a chili dog?”

“No.” Hunk and Keith firmly say.

“A coney dog is specifically an all meat chili, no beans, usually a beef chili and specifically two stripes of mustard. A chili dog is a generic name for any hot dog that’s topped with chili.” Hunk explains the difference more clearly.

“Oh, okay, I guess. Seems a little silly to have it so specific.”

Hunk shrugs, “yeah, it is, but the midwest has a lot of things like that.” He says as he turns into the Coney Island parking lot

“Yeah, like how you guys put ranch dressing on literally everything.” Lance points out.

Keith turns his head to look at Lance. “Is that not normal?”

“Well, it’s just not something I’ve seen until I came here, like ranch on pizza isn’t that common in Florida but here it’s an outrage if you don’t have ranch.”

“Because ranch is a delicious dipping sauce and it belongs on most things.” Hunk says, parking the car and unbuckling his seatbelt.

Keith and Lance follow, walking inside the diner together. They’re seated pretty fast, placed in a booth towards the back of the restaurant. Keith goes in first, Lance sitting next to him while Hunk takes the seat across from them

They scan the menu for a bit, deciding what they want to eat. Lance already sure he wants to try a coney dog, to see if it really is different from a chili dog. Keith orders chicken tenders and fries, despite the talk about the coney dogs. Hunk calls him a child but he rolls his eyes, you’re never too old to eat what’s basically fried chicken.

When the waitress comes by with their food Keith and Hunk both stare at Lance as the dishes are placed in front of them. Lance looks closely at the coney dog, it’s exactly as they said, a meat chili on top, with no beans, chopped onions and only two stripes of mustard.

“You’re going to make me take the first bite while you watch, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Now try it, you’re lucky we aren’t filming.” Hunk urges him.

Lance picks up the hot dog with his two hands, it’s much bigger than any normal one. He looks to Keith next to him, then Hunk across before taking a big bite. He chews on it and swallows, taking a long time, mostly just to irritate the other two.

“How was it?” Hunk asks after a few moments.

Lance wipes his mouth and grins, “that was good, and I can taste the difference between any regular chili dog, it is different but not by that much.”

“Told you they’re different. I’m glad you like it, we’ll turn you into a Michigander yet.” Keith says, dipping his chicken tender in ranch before taking a bite.

“Again with the ranch.” Lance says, watching him.

“Well am I supposed to just eat a sad, dry chicken tender?”

“No, but normally the dipping sauce of choice is ketchup.”

“Wrong, not as good. Ranch is superior in every way.” Keith says firmly.

They eat the rest of the meal in mostly silence, all hungry from the drive, eating their meals pretty quickly, stealing fries from each others plates, even though each meal came with a side of fries.

“Lance, can I have a sip of your pop?” Keith asks after he finishes the final bites of his meal, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

“Sure, Keith. You can have a sip of my soda.” Lance puts emphasis on the word ‘soda’ as he slides his drink over to Keith.

Hunk looks up and glares at him. “We have you outnumbered, don’t even try to start that debate here.”

“All I said is that he can have a drink from my soda.” Lance smiles, overly sweet.

Keith, Lance, and Hunk all have a stare off, no one so much as blinking, all prepared to have this debate in public. Their waitress comes by with the bills and sets them on the table.

“Oh, honey, would you like a refill on your pop?” She asks Lance.

Lance deflates and Hunk cheers. “No thank you, he would not like a refill on his, _pop,_ we’re leaving soon, thank you.”

The waitress gives them a strange look but nods and walks away. Keith turns to Lance with a shit eating grin plastered on his face.

“You live in Michigan now, you have to start talking like us. It’s pop instead of soda, mary, marry, and merry all sound the same, say ope when you bump into someone, drop your T’s when you talk.”

“Drop my T’s?”

“Yeah,” Hunk says, “in things like winter, we pronounce it win-er, Toronto is Toron-o, city is ci-dy. Things like that.”

Keith nods, “yeah, Allura has this friend back in college, Lotor. I have to constantly check myself when I talk so I don’t say it like Lo-dor instead.”

Lance sits back, “huh, I never noticed that. I’m never going to be able to not hear that when you guys talk now.”

“Yeah, our accents are subtle for the most part, if you go more midwest you’ll notice it more, especially in places like Minnesota.” Hunk says, picking up his bill.

Lance and Keith pick up their own to check the price before standing up, leaving tips on the table before going to pay at the counter in the front of the diner, near the exit.

As they walk out, Hunk pulls out his keys from his pocket. “There’s only an hour left in the drive, I’ll drop you guys off in front of your dorm building?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Keith says, getting in the car and buckling his seatbelt.

He takes out his phone and texts his brother, telling him he’s an hour away from campus and as soon as he gets the chance he’ll call him later on tonight. He tells Allura the same thing, knowing that they’ll get a chance to talk tomorrow when she gets back from her classes. He may be on break and not have any Monday classes, but she does.

He’ll text his parents when he gets back to his dorm and is settled down, they’ll want to call him and he’s not mentally ready for that.

Keith looks out the window and watches the cars pass by next to them. They left around noon. The drive itself so far had only been three and a half hours, but they spent a while at the Coney Island, so as they near Ann Arbor it’s almost six pm.

Hunk exits off the freeway and drives through the streets, listening to the GPS for the way to their building.

Lance sits up and packs away the blanket he has across his lap, folding and stuffing it back into his backpack as far down as he can so he can zip it up. He straps his camera back across his body and lifts his backpack onto the seat next to him.

Hunk pulls up to their building and pulls over onto the side of the road so they’re not blocking traffic. He parks the car and unbuckles his seatbelt, Keith and Lance doing the same.

They all step out, Keith and Lance situating themselves so theith backpacks are on properly, and they haven’t forgotten anything in Hunk’s car.

Hunk gives Lance a tight hug, “It was great to have you on this trip, keep in touch, yeah?”

“Of course.” Lance says sincerely, hugging Hunk back just as tight.

They part and Hunk goes over to Keith, giving him a tight hug, picking him up in the process. “I’m gonna miss you, buddy.”

Keith smiles and hugs him back, letting Hunk carry him for a moment. “I’m gonna miss you too. I’ll text you, soon. This summer you, me, and Allura will for sure hang out.”

Hunk puts him back on the floor and kisses his forehead. “We better, now I have to go, this is a no park zone and I’ll get a ticket if I stay here for too long. I’ll see you later.”

Keith pulls back and waves his goodbye as Hunk gets into his car and drives away. He turns back to Lance and walks inside the building together. They take out their school IDs and show it to the security there so they’re let inside, able to go up to the third floor where Keith’s room is.

Lance takes him up there, he doesn't have to walk Keith to his room, but he’s not going to waste the chance to spend more time with Keith, and Keith sure isn’t complaining. They walk up to Keith’s dorm door and stop in front of it, turning to look at each other, Keith’s back facing the door.

“This is me.” Keith says, a little sad. Now that they’re up here he’s realizing his trip is officially over.

“Yeah, um, are your roommates still gone?” Lance says, it’s the first time the whole weekend he feels awkward talking to Keith.

“Yeah, they’re gone for the whole break, they’ll be back next Sunday.”

“That’s cool, so you have the whole place to yourself, that’s nice.”

Keith nods. “Yeah, it’s nice. Thank you, for, uh, running away with me. This weekend was amazing, it helped get my mind off everything that happened on Thursday, and it was really fun to hang out with you, we don’t get to do that often.”

Lance smiles. “I’ll run away with you anytime. It was no problem, a fun adventure and I got some amazing pictures to document it, thanks for letting me come with. I had a really nice time hanging out with you all weekend.”

He steps a bit closer to Keith, their height difference normally isn’t that noticeable, it’s only an inch or two at most, but standing like this, Keith has to look up at him. Lance bends down a bit, their noses almost touching. Keith places a hand on Lance’s shoulder, balancing himself, if Lance moves any closer he’ll bump into his door.

Lance swallows, his breath uneven. “The first night we got up there, we saw a shooting star. Did your wish come true?”

Keith leans in further, brushing their noses together as he nods. “It has now.” He whispers before pressing their lips together for a soft kiss.

Lance wraps his arms around Keith’s waist, kissing back gently. Keith moves his hand from Lance’s shoulder to cup his cheek.

They’re in the middle of the hallway, but they don’t care, no one can see them, everyone is on break, and even if someone could they’d just ignore them. It would be worth it.

Keith breaks the kiss after a few seconds. You wanna come in? Hang out and stuff?” He asks, smiling.

Lance licks his lips and nods, “yeah, and stuff.” He says, dipping his head down for another soft kiss before stepping back, letting Keith unlock the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end<3 I hope you liked the ending as much as i did, im very satisfied with the way it ended up. Thank you so much for reading this!!  
> Anyway please comment and kudos it means the literal world to me <3 and thank u so much for reading this!  
> please talk to me at [my voltron tumblr Shiroskitten](http://shiroskitten.tumblr.com/)  
> I don't know what my new fic will be but it probably wont be soon


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